Knowledge Center
Find all the information about DICOM, learn DICOM terminology such as “association”, “C-GET”, “MPPS”, “SCM”, and much more.
Read, comprehend, and be prepared to use the DICOM jargon when the occasion calls for it.
Port
A port (door/window) in the computer where communication is made through. One host may have many ports and each networking application works through one of them. The standard port for DICOM applications is 104. [...]
Presentation Context
A combination of a SOP Class and Transfer Syntax that is agreed upon between two applications during the association negotiation phase. The transfer syntax is used to serialize the commands and data objects of the [...]
SCM – Storage Commitment Management
A DICOM Service that is used to “pass the ownership” on DICOM Instances from one application to another. It confirms that a DICOM Application stores a set of DICOM Instances in a similar way to [...]
SCP
Acronym for “Service Class Provider”. Synonym for “Server” in general computing terminology.
SCU
Acronym for “Service Class User”. Synonym for “Client” in general computing terminology.
Service Object Pair (SOP) Class
A pair of an IOD and DIMSE Service that together defines a capability of a DICOM AE. At association phase, AE’s exchange SOP Class UID’s and agree on their capabilities.
SOAP
Simple Object Access Protocol. A protocol for exchanging objects between Web Services SOAP uses XML as message and object format and usually relies on HTTP for transmission.
SOP Instance UID
Uniquely identifies one DICOM Instance. Every DICOM Instance has a UID.
Transfer Syntax
Defines how data elements are serialized in three (3) aspects: (1) Byte order (Little/Big endian) (2) Explicit or Implicit Value Representation and (3) If and what type of compression is used for the image pixel [...]
UID
Acronym for “Unique Identifier”. UID’s are widely used in DICOM and are assigned to objects, classes, transfer syntaxes, special services, and specific data elements. NEMA registers DICOM UID’s and every instance of a DICOM application [...]
VM
Value Multiplicity. A DICOM Element may have multiple values. String values are separated by \ while the VM of binary values is determined by dividing the element length in bytes by the size of one [...]
VNA
Acronym for Vendor Neutral Archive. A digital archive for medical documents, including images, that stores documents of multiple standards and formats and provide access through a variety of protocols. Many times VNA is compared [...]
VR
Value Representation. The DICOM Data Type. VR’s are named as two letter codes. E.g. UI is the UID. PN is Person Name.
WADO
Web Access to DICOM Objects. Part 18 of the DICOM standard details an interface to DICOM Objects using HTTP. WADO enables, for example, retrieving DICOM images as JPEG using an HTTP GET request. The [...]
XDS
Acronym for “Cross Enterprise Document Sharing”. XDS is an IHE Integration Profile that specifies a method for sharing document across enterprise boundaries.