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Introduction

Introduction – using File_DICOM

What is DICOM?

File_DICOM allows reading and modifying of DICOM files. DICOM stands for Digital Imaging and COmmunications in Medicine, and is a standard for creating, storing and transfering digital images (X-rays, tomography) and related information used in medicine. This package in particular does not support the exchange/transfer of DICOM data, nor any network related functionality. More information on the DICOM standard can be found at the NEMA site.

Please be aware that any use of the information produced by this package for diagnosing purposes is strongly discouraged by the author. See here for more information.

Using it

File_DICOM can be used to accomplish two things, to retrieve data from a file (including image data), and to set new values for that data (allowing to write the modified file).

Let's see how we could show some relevant data from a DICOM file and export its image data at the same time.

Showing data

<?php
require_once('File/DICOM.php');

$dicom = new File_DICOM();
$res = $dicom->parse("test.dcm");

// check for errors
if (PEAR::isError($res)) {
    die("Error: ".$res->getMessage()."\n");
}

// show a few attributes of the DICOM file using group and element index
echo 'StudyDate : '.$dicom->getValue(0x0008, 0x0020)."\n";
echo 'Image Date : '.$dicom->getValue(0x0008, 0x0023)."\n";
echo 'Image Type : '.$dicom->getValue(0x0008, 0x0008)."\n";
echo 'Study Time : '.$dicom->getValue(0x0008, 0x0030)."\n";
echo 'Institution Name : '.$dicom->getValue(0x0008, 0x0080)."\n";
echo 'Manufacturer : '.$dicom->getValue(0x0008, 0x0070)."\n";
echo 'Manufacturer Model Name : '.$dicom->getValue(0x0008, 0x1090)."\n";
// or using element name
echo 'Patient Name : '.$dicom->getValue('PatientName')."\n";
echo 'Patient Age : '.$dicom->getValue('PatientAge')."\n";

// dump a PGM image from the file data
$res = $dicom->dumpImage('test.pgm');
if (PEAR::isError($res)) {
    die("Error: ".$res->getMessage()."\n");
}
?>

constructor File_DICOM::File_DICOM

constructor File_DICOM::File_DICOM() – Constructor.

Synopsis

void constructor File_DICOM::File_DICOM ( )

Description

It creates a File_DICOM object.

Note

This function can not be called statically.

File_DICOM::parse

File_DICOM::parse() – Parse a DICOM file.

Synopsis

mixed File_DICOM::parse ( string $infile )

Description

Parse a DICOM file and get all of its header members.

Parameter

string $infile

The DICOM file to parse

Return value

returns true on success, PEAR_Error on failure

Note

This function can not be called statically.

File_DICOM::write

File_DICOM::write() – Write current contents to a DICOM file.

Synopsis

mixed File_DICOM::write ( string $outfile = '' )

Description

This package is not documented yet.

Parameter

string $outfile

The name of the file to write. If not given it assumes the name of the file parsed. If no file was parsed and no name is given returns a PEAR_Error

Return value

returns true on success, PEAR_Error on failure

Note

This function can not be called statically.

File_DICOM::getValue

File_DICOM::getValue() – Gets the value for a DICOM element.

Synopsis

mixed File_DICOM::getValue ( mixed $group_or_name , integer $element = null )

Description

Gets the value for a DICOM element of a given group from the parsed DICOM file

Parameter

mixed $group_or_name

The group the DICOM element belongs to (integer), or its name (string)

integer $element

The identifier for the DICOM element (unique inside a group). Optional

Return value

returns The value for the DICOM element on success, PEAR_Error on failure

Note

This function can not be called statically.

Example

Using getValue()

<?php
require_once('File/DICOM.php');

$dicom_file = new File_DICOM();
$res = $dicom_file->parse('test.dcm');

// check for errors
if (PEAR::isError($res)) {
    die($res->getMessage());
}

echo 'this value: '.$dicom_file->getValue('PatientName')."\n";
echo 'Should be the same as this value: '.$dicom_file->getValue(0x0010, 0x0010)."\n";
?>

File_DICOM::setValue

File_DICOM::setValue() – Sets the value for a DICOM element.

Synopsis

void File_DICOM::setValue ( integer $gp , integer $el , mixed $value )

Description

Sets the value for a DICOM element. Only works with strings now.

Parameter

integer $gp

The group the DICOM element belongs to

integer $el

The identifier for the DICOM element (unique inside a group)

mixed $value

Note

This function can not be called statically.

File_DICOM::dumpImage

File_DICOM::dumpImage() – Dumps the contents of the image inside the DICOM file (element 0x0010 from group 0x7FE0) to a PGM (Portable Gray Map) file.

Synopsis

mixed File_DICOM::dumpImage ( string $filename )

Description

Use with Caution!!. For a 8.5MB DICOM file on a P4 it takes 28 seconds to dump it's image.

Parameter

string $filename

The file where to save the image

Return value

returns true on success, PEAR_Error on failure.

Note

This function can not be called statically.