DICOM Patcher¶
This module fixes common errors in DICOM files to make them possible to import them into Slicer.
DICOM is a large and complex standard and device manufacturers and third-party software developers often make mistakes in their implementation. DICOM patcher module can recognize some common mistakes and certain known device-specific mistakes and create a modified copy of the DICOM files.
Panels and their use¶
Input DICOM directory: folder containing the original, invalid DICOM files
Output DICOM directory: folder that will contain the new, corrected DICOM files, typically this is a new, empty folder that is not a subfolder of the input DICOM directory
Normalize file names: Replace file and folder names with automatically generated names. Fixes errors caused by file path containing special characters or being too long.
Force same patient name and ID in each directory: Generate patient name and ID from the first file in a directory and force all other files in the same directory to have the same patient name and ID. Enable this option if a separate patient directory is created for each patched file.
Generate missing patient/study/series IDs: Generate missing patient, study, series IDs. It is assumed that all files in a directory belong to the same series. Fixes error caused by too aggressive anonymization or incorrect DICOM image converters.
Generate slice position for multi-frame volumes: Generate ‘image position sequence’ for multi-frame files that only have ‘SliceThickness’ field. Fixes error in Dolphin 3D CBCT scanners.
Partially anonymize: If checked, then some patient identifiable information will be removed from the patched DICOM files. There are many fields that can identify a patient, this function does not remove all of them.
Patch: create a fixed up copy of input files in the output folder
Import: import fixed up files into Slicer DICOM database
Go to DICOM module: switches to DICOM module, to see the imported DICOM files in the DICOM browser
Tutorial¶
If you have already attempted to import files from the input folder then delete that from the Slicer DICOM database: go to
DICOM
module, right-click on the imported patient, and clickDelete
.Go to
DICOM Patcher
module (inUtilities
category)Select input DICOM directory
Select a new, empty folder as Output DICOM directory
Click checkboxes of each fix operations that must be performed
Click
Patch
button to create a fixed up copy of input files in the output folderClick
Import
button to import fixed up files into Slicer DICOM databaseClick
Go to DICOM module
to see the imported DICOM files in the DICOM browser
Information for Developers¶
This is a Python scripted module. Source code is available here.
Contributors¶
Authors:
Andras Lasso (PerkLab, Queen’s University)
Acknowledgements¶
This module is partly funded by an Applied Cancer Research Unit of Cancer Care Ontario with funds provided by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and the Ontario Consortium for Adaptive Interventions in Radiation Oncology (OCAIRO) to provide free, open-source toolset for radiotherapy and related image-guided interventions.