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standardsdicomimagingmedical

Patient Orientation attribute: which value when the image doesn't depict body parts?

In DICOM General Image Module (C.7.6.1) Patient Orientation (0020,0020) is declared of type 2C (conditional).

From DICOM standard documentation:

Required if image does not require Image Orientation (Patient) (0020,0037) and Image Position (Patient) (0020,0032). May be present otherwise.

Now I need to create a secondary capture image that is not directly related to a patient, or better doesn't depict part of a human body but is a simply report related to the radiopharmaceuticals dose injected to the patient.

So I'm wondering what is the correct value for the attribute in case the image as just above explained diverge from the classical context.

Solution

  • Attribute Type 2C means:

    • if the condition (C) is met, it must be present
    • if it is present, it may be empty (Type 2)

    So, the correct way would be: Include it but leave it empty (zero-length).

    Apart from that: Consider to encode your report as a SR or Encapsulated PDF.