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DICOM mandatory attributes

I am trying to understand which attributes are required and which are not. As far as I understood you look at the corresponding IOD to your SOP class and then check which modules are mandatory or not. Then in the modules you can see which attributes are required and which are not. For example if my SOP class is multi frame ultrasound images, I look at the corresponding IOD, which can be seen on this page: https://dicom.nema.org/dicom/2013/output/chtml/part03/sect_A.7.html

Then I see a module called "Clinical Trial Subject", it's usage says U, which means it's optional. However when I check the module on this page, I see multiple attributes which are listed as type 1, which means these attributes are required. enter image description here I was wondering if I should add these attributes in the DICOM header or if I can ignore it because in the IOD it says this module is optional.

Solution

  • What this means is that the module itself is optional, but if you have the module then those elements are mandatory within the module.

    This makes sense logically: obviously a single study may, or may not, be a clinical trial - hence the clinical trial module is optional.

    However if a study is part of a clinical trial, then there are definitely some information you always want to know. So those elements within the trial module are mandatory.