Bio-medical Ontologies Maintenance and Change Management

Multimedia Medical Databases 79
• Pathology images have often been proposed for content-based access as the
color and texture properties can relatively easy be identified; the pathologist
can use a CBIR system instead of books when searching for reference cases
• Histopathology images
• Histology images
• Cardiology
• Within the radiology department, mammography are one of the most frequent
application areas
• Ultrasound images of the breast and other ultrasound images
• High resolution computed tomography (HRCT) scans of the lung
• Endoscopic images from digestive area
It must be mentioned that all these applications and studies have been
implemented using multimedia medical databases that are extremely varied in size
and quality [67]. It starts from tens or hundreds, ending with thousands. The
results of these studies are more solid as the dimension of the database is higher
and if the images are acquired from the investigation and diagnosis process of the
patients. One of the biggest databases used in studies use only simulated images.
Although these simulated images are easy and cheap to obtain, their use for any
qualitative assessments is more than questionable [67].
Databases that have been used in content-based visual retrieval study have only
few tens or hundreds of medical images and it is considered to be too small for
delivering any statistically significant measurements [67].
2 DICOM Standard
2.1 Introduction
Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) is a standard for
handling, storing, printing, and transmitting information in medical imaging. It
specifies a file format definition and a network communications protocol that uses
TCP/IP to communicate between systems [19].
DICOM standard brings advantages like [105]:
• DICOM files can be exchanged between two entities that are capable of receiving
image and patient data in DICOM format
• It enables the integration of scanners, servers, workstations, printers, and network
hardware from multiple manufacturers into a picture archiving and communication
system.
DICOM has been widely adopted by hospitals, but also by doctors’ offices in
smaller applications.
American College of Radiology (ACR) and National Electrical Manufacturers
Association (NEMA) developed DICOM standard [19]. There were three steps in
their development [105]. Their first standard, ACR/NEMA 300, was released in