An Overview of the DICOM File Format

The following topics provide general information about the DICOM File Format and will help familiarize you with DICOM:

Basic DICOM File Structure

Big-Endian versus Little Endian Byte Ordering

Compression

Data Element Fields

Data Element Structure

Data Element Type

Delimitation of the Sequence of Items

Encoding of Pixel Data

Group Length

Information Object Definitions

Item Encoding Rules

Native or Encapsulated Format Encoding

Nesting of Data Sets

Pixel Data Encoding of Related Data Elements

Private Data Elements

Private Data Element Tags

Repeating Groups

Retired Data Elements

Unique Identifiers

Value Representations

Value Multiplicity (VM) and Delimitation

For more detailed information on the DICOM File Format, refer to the DICOM Standard, published by:

National Electrical Manufacturers Association

1300 N. 17th Street

Rosslyn, Virginia 22209 USA

For more information on programming using this toolkit, refer to:

 Programming With LEADTOOLS.