15.12.2012 Views

Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM)

Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM)

Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM)

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

5.6 <strong>DICOM</strong> Information Hierarchy 73<br />

Fig. 16 Example of hierarchical (left) vs. relational (right) search for a “images of last<br />

month’s CT study for John Smith”. Hierarchical searches are simpler. This makes them<br />

more efficient, but requires more steps<br />

tional data process<strong>in</strong>g does not break data <strong>in</strong>to the four levels, <strong>and</strong> it permits<br />

you to search data <strong>in</strong> any way possible (provided that the data is somehow related).<br />

For example, you can search for a particular series not know<strong>in</strong>g its Study<br />

<strong>and</strong> Patient IDs, as long as you provide other data to identify the series (such as<br />

modality, date/time, UID, <strong>and</strong> so on).<br />

<strong>DICOM</strong> supports relational (nonhierarchical) data process<strong>in</strong>g as an option.<br />

While hierarchical data process<strong>in</strong>g is m<strong>and</strong>atory on any <strong>DICOM</strong> unit, rela-

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!