What’s New in DICOM 2004

Robert Horn
Agfa Healthcare
Chair DICOM WG-06
(Base Standard)
 New in the 2004 DICOM
Publication
 New Image Objects
 Enhanced CT
 Ophthalmic Photography
 MPEG-2 and Visible Light (for endoscopy)
 New Structured Reports
 OB-Gyn Procedure, Catheterization Lab Procedure
 Vascular Ultrasound Procedure, Echocardiography
 Intravascular Ultrasound, Quantitative Arteriography
 Breast Imaging
 Media Related
 USB and Flash Memory
 Media Creation Services

16 February 2005 SPIE 2005

 New in DICOM 2004 (contd)
 Other services
 Relevant Patient Information Query
 Spatial Registration

 Instance Availability Notification

 Used with other standards

 Configuration Management
 Web Access to DICOM Objects

16 February 2005 SPIE 2005

 New Structured Reports
 Allof these reports are designed to capture
precise measurements taken by equipment
during various diagnostic procedures.
Examples include:
– Fetal bone measurements
– Vascular flow and diameter measurements
 Customized reports are defined for:
– OB-Gyn procedures
– Catheterization Lab Procedures
– Vascular Ultrasound Procedures
– Echocardiography
– Intravascular Ultrasound (IVUS)
– Quantitative Arteriography and Vasculography
– Breast Imaging
16 February 2005 SPIE 2005
 Enhanced CT
 CT has been enhanced in a manner very
similar to that done for MR last year.
 Instead of one object per slice, use multi-frame images
 Support segmenting the study into more conveniently
sized objects.
 Support flexible structuring of slice descriptions and slice
parameters.
 There is a CT and MR taskforce
 To avoid compatibility problems in the field
 To simplify the upgrade process
 To help ensure that a hospital can upgrade all of their
equipment in a synchronized manner
 To reduce development costs for vendors

16 February 2005 SPIE 2005

 Ophthalmic Photography
 Supports the many different forms of
traditional ophthalmic photography, both still
and moving, with and without contrast.
– Fundus Photography,
– Bio-microscopy (slit lamp)
– External Photography
 Added generic support for describing stereo
pairs for stereo viewing. All ophthalmic
objects are potentially stereo components.

16 February 2005 SPIE 2005

 MPEG-2 and Visible Light
Video
 The MPEG-2 standard for compressed video has
been added as a transfer syntax. This syntax is
presently limited to the broadcast television
parameters, not other higher resolution
configurations.
 Suitable for replacing videotape capture from
standard television cameras.
 Defined a generic endoscopy object that supports
this transfer syntax. This object is expected to be
used as a functional replacement for the present
video camera and video tape used during endoscopic
procedures.

16 February 2005 SPIE 2005

 Media Related Additions
 USB and Flash removable media
 Generic removable USB devices.
 Compact Flash

 SD Flash

 Media Creation Services

 Similar to Print Services, but used to create
CD’s and DVD’s.

16 February 2005 SPIE 2005

 Relevant Patient Information
Query
 Simple Interface to HIS or other
services for important patient
information such as allergies.
 Intended for use in modalities and other
equipment that is already DICOM
enabled.

16 February 2005 SPIE 2005

 Spatial Registration
 Defines spatial relationships between
multiple DICOM image objects. E.g.:
 Mapping PET and CT images to a common
coordinate system.
 Mapping MR and CT images to a common

coordinate system.
 Captures fiducial marker information:
 Location of fiducial marks on images
 Matching of fiducial marks between images

16 February 2005 SPIE 2005

 Instance Availability
Notification
 Used by PACS, RIS, and other systems to coordinate
scheduling of activity with the transfer of image data
between systems.
 Recipient of images will notify other systems after
image data transfer is complete.
 Prior DICOM messages had a way for a modality to
notify the managing system that it was sending
images to the archive, but lacked a way for the
archive to indicate that all the images had arrived.
The result was excessive queries by workstations
asking the archive whether images had arrived yet.

16 February 2005 SPIE 2005

 Configuration Management
 Defines proper use of DNS, DHCP, and NTP for
automatic assignment of IP addresses and automatic
maintenance of correct time.
 Defines an LDAP information structure that describes
the DICOM application configuration for a network.
 This is different from the other extensions in that it is
intended to improve administration and network
operations.
 Quicker installation, maintenance, and upgrades
 Easier reconfiguration of networks and facilities
 More potential for customer performed maintenance
 More potential for automatic and semi-automatic new equipment
installation.
 Consistent time on images, reports, and user displays on all
systems.
16 February 2005 SPIE 2005
 Web Access to DICOM
Objects
 This is a joint effort together with ISO and is
issued as both part of DICOM and an ISO
standard
 A URL format is defined so that a web query
from a web browser can be supported by a
DICOM aware server. URL parameters
indicate the desired patient, study, image,
frame, and area of the frame that is to be
returned as a JPEG image.
 Similar URL parameters are defined for some
other operations on DICOM information.
16 February 2005 SPIE 2005
 Work with other standards
 HL7 CDA references from DICOM
 DICOM SR extensions to ease transcoding to
CDA
 Encapsulation of PDF Objects

16 February 2005 SPIE 2005

 DICOM 2005 Conference
 26-28September, 2005
Budapest, Hungary
– Tutorials
– Plans and Status of current work
– Vision for the future

 http://medical.nema.org/dicom/DCW-2005

16 February 2005 SPIE 2005

 Next Presentations
 SecurityExtensions
 Display Extensions
 Standard API for plugins, etc.

16 February 2005 SPIE 2005