S 1.4 Status of implementation of DICOM in cardiac imaging systems

JOHAN H. C. REIBER, PH. D., BOB GOEDHART, PH. D.

University Hospital Leiden
Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine
Leiden NL

Email: hreiber@lkeb.medfac.leidenuniv.nl

Now that the DICOM standard has been accepted and the exchange medium (CD-R) selected, major steps have been taken towards the realization of the full digital catheterization laboratory.

In an effort to find out how far the major imaging companies had progressed along this route, a comprehensive questionnaire was sent out early 1996 to the following six major vendors: Camtronics Medical Systems, GE Medical Systems, Eastman Kodak Cardiology Products, Philips Medical Systems, Siemens Medical and Toshiba Medical Systems. Questions were subdivided into seven subjects: 1) acquisition; 2) review and analysis; 3) exchange; 4) archiving; 5) CD-R writer; 6) hardcopy unit; and 7) networking. From the results of the questionnaire it can be concluded that: 1) all six manufacturers support the reading and writing of image files in DICOM format on the CD-R disk and in some cases additionally on other media, 2) that differences exist in the choice of matrix sizes, however, 512 x 512 x 8 is supported by all manufacturers, 3) that some companies in addition support lossy image data compression (JPEG and MPEG), 4) that differences exist in the archiving approaches and the specifications of the Review Stations; and 5) that all companies minimally support the TCP/IP network protocol. Aside from these issues, other topics need to be addressed in the future such as the acceptability of lossy compression and not to forget security aspects.