Introduction This schema defines the data types that are used by DICOM metadata schemas. Naming conventions: All DICOM value representation (VR) types are named with a 2-character string, such as "AE" and "CS". All DICOM attribute type definitions are named as VR_ATTR_T, where VR is replaced by the attribute's 2-character VR. Note that each item of a sequence type (SQ) is of DATASET_T type. The DATASET_T type can recursively contain more attributes. The element name of an attribute is its value representation (VR) name. Oracle uses value representation names defined by the DICOM standard part 5. The element name to VR mappings are: APPLICATION_ENTITY --- AE AGE_STRING --- AS ATTRIBUTE_TAG --- AT CODE_STRING --- CS DATE --- DA DECIMAL_STRING --- DS FLOAT_SINGLE --- FL FLOAT_DOUBLE --- FD INTEGER_STRING --- IS LONG_STRING --- LO LONG_TEXT --- LT OTHER_BYTE --- OB OTHER_FLOAT --- OF OTHER_WORD --- OW OTHER_WORD --- OWB PERSON_NAME --- PN SHORT_STRING --- SH SIGNED_LONG --- SL SEQUENCE --- SQ SIGNED_SHORT --- SS SHORT_TEXT --- ST TIME --- TM UNIQUE_ID --- UI UNSIGNED_LONG --- UL UNKNOWN --- UN UNSIGNED_SHORT --- US SIGNED_SHORT --- USS UNLIMITED_TEXT --- UT EXTENDED_TYPE --- EXT EXCEPTION_TYPE --- EXP The VR types "OWB', "EXT", "EXP" and "USS" are Oracle-defined extensions. Please refer to the individual data type documentation for more explanation. DICOM Value representation Application Entity DICOM Value representation Age String. The age string can be expressed either in DICOM string format, or in number of days. When metadata is extracted from a DICOM object, both elements will be populated. XML documents can represent age by either format. Age in number of days is converted into an age string when XML metadata is encoded into a DICOM object. To convert from age string into the number of days: 365 * number_of_year or 31 * number_of_month. Because AGE_STRING is mandatory, it is not necessary to convert from the number of days into an age string. DICOM VR type Attribute Tag. An attribute tag is expressed as two big-endian 2-byte hexadecimal number (group number followed by element number with no separator). DICOM VR type Code String DICOM VR type DAte DICOM VR type Decimal String DICOM VR type Data Time DICOM VR type FLoating-point single DICOM VR type Floating-point Double DICOM VR type Integer String DICOM VR type LOng string DICOM VR type Long Text DICOM VR type Other Byte VR type Other Float DICOM VR type Other Word in base64binary encoding. The mandatory attribute endian specifies the byte order of the binary value. DICOM VR type Person Name. Person Name can be expressed either in component format or as a single concatentated string. When metadata is extracted from a DICOM object, the person name type is encoded with both formats. Users can index and search DICOM metadata with either the component format or the concatenated string format. In component format, a name has an optional "type" attribute that indicates its encoding type. The value of the "type" attribute can be "unibyte", "ideographic" or "phonetic". A name may have up to five components: "FAMILY", "GIVEN", "MIDDLE", "PREFIX", and "SUFFIX". DICOM VR type SHort string DICOM VR type Signed Long DICOM VR type SeQuence. Note that item number can be explicitly encoded in XML. Number counts from 1 up. Each item is a DATASET_T type, which may contain any combination of DICOM attributes. DICOM VR type Signed Short DICOM VR type Short Text DICOM VR type TiMe DICOM VR type Unique Identifier DICOM VR type Unsigned Long DICOM VR type UNknown. This type contains a base64 dump of its binary content. The mandatory attribute "endian" specifies the byte order of this encoding. DICOM VR type Unsigned Short DICOM VR type Unlimited Text DICOM Extension type This type does not have direct mapping to any value representation (VR) types defined in Part 5 of the DICOM standard. It can accommodate future extensions to DICOM VR types without modification to the XML schema definitions. The VR element specifies the value representation. The VALUE element specifies the XML value for the corresponding data element. The exact XML schema definition can be introduced in the future. DICOM Exception type. This type does not have direct mapping to any value representation (VR) types defined in Part 5 of the DICOM standard. It indicates an error situation. It is equivalent to an exception in the Java language. The value of this data type is the original byte array of the data type in the DICOM object. The dataset type maps the DICOM concept dataset into an XML schema type(See the DICOM standard P3-5) . A dataset may contain any number of DICOM attributes. Each type of attribute has a name that reflects the DICOM value representation of the attribute. Each attribute is strongly typed, and its type matches its DICOM VR. Note that DICOM attribute type SQ (sequence) may recursively contain items that are also of the dataset type. Attribute value type (ATTR_VALUE_T) maps to a single DICOM attribute value. Each type of attribute has a name that reflects the DICOM value representation of the attribute. Each attribute is strongly typed, and its type matches its DICOM VR. Certain DICOM configuration files, such as constraint documents, use ATTR_VALUE_T. Attribute group type (ATTR_GRP_T) is used by all DICOM attribute definitions. It defines XML attributes that are used by all DICOM attribute types. The "tag" attribute defines DICOM attributes in little-endian encoding. The "definer" attribute specifies the organization that has created the attribute. By default, all DICOM standard attributes have the definer name "DICOM". The "name" attribute specifies the canonical attribute name as defined by the data dictionary. For example, in an XML metadata schema definition, you can choose a tag PATIENT_DATE_OF_BIRTH or "DOB" for DICOM attribute (0010,0030), but its name attribute should match that of the DICOM standard: "Patient's Birth Date". The "number" attribute is an optional attribute to indicate the ordering of a multivalued attributes. Number counts from 1 up. The "truncated" attribute takes a Boolean value. If it is true, it indicates that the original length of the DICOM attribute exceeds the maximum length allowed for this XML value;therefore, it is truncated in XML. When this attribute is true, xsi:nill="true" for this attribute. Optionally, the "rawValue" attribute can be used to store values that do not conform to the DICOM standard. The associated attribute "byteOrderLE" specifies the byte order of the byte stream for the "rawValue" attribute. "offset" and "length" are Oracle-reserved attributes. This attribute is useful for representing attributes whose VR types are not supported natively by Oracle. This attribute type is useful for representing attributes that are present in a DICOM object, but whose definition cannot be found in the data dictionary. Such attributes cannot be parsed or interpreted. Each time the XML configuration document is modified, a new element, DOCUMENT_CHANGE_LOG, is added to the DOCUMENT_HEADER. The change log describes who made what type of change to the XML document on which date. It also describes what DICOM standard document the modification is based upon, either a DICOM change proposal (CP) or a DICOM supplement. DOCUMENT_MODIFIER identifies the modifier of the present XML document. If it is generated by software, specify the name and version of the software. DOCUMENT_MODIFICATION_DATE specifies the date when this XML document is modified. DOCUMENT_VERSION specifies the version of the document after the modification. MODIFICATION_COMMENT briefly describes the modification. BASE_DOCUMENT describes the document or DICOM standard that the modification is based upon. BASE_DOCUMENT_RELEASE_DATE specifies the release date of the base document. BASE_DOCUMENT_DESCRIPTION briefly describes the base document. Attribute definer is identified by its name and UID. In Oracle's implementation, the DICOM standard is given the definer name "DICOM" and the UID "1.2.840.10008.1". All DICOM standard attributes are given the definer name "DICOM". Users can introduce private attributes of their own and encode them in an XML document. These private attributes are identified with the definer's name and UID. Oracle recommends that all DICOM private attributes be associated with a UID-qualified name. The attribute tag type differs from DICOM VR type AT in that it allows the wildcard character 'x'. The attribute range type defines a range of DICOM attributes. This data type is used in private attribute definitions. Certain private attributes accept a range of attribute tags. The DICOM value locator type identifies a particular DICOM attribute by "xxxxxxxx(definer)", where "xxxxxxxx" is the attribute tag and "definer" is the attribute definer, which can be the DICOM standard (DICOM) or other private sources. A locator path can also identify a particular descendent of a container type attribute (SQ). The n-th item of a sequence attribute is denoted by "xxxxxxxxx(definer)[n]". By default, the definer suffix "(definer)" can be omitted if the attribute is a DICOM standard tag. The index "n" of an item address "[n]" must be a positive integer. The item address suffix can be omitted if the item it pointed to is the first item of a sequence. For example, 00080096.00401101.00080100 is the code that identifies the first referring physician. The above value locator is equivalent to: 00080096(DICOM)[1].00401101(DICOM)[1].00080100(DICOM) VALUE_LOCATOR_MACRO_T is similar to the value locator type, except that it permits the use of a macro within the locator string. So, the macro locator string can be: ${TAG}(DICOM)[2].00080100 This string indicates the code value (0008,0100) of the second item of a sequence attribute identified by ${TAG}. The macro parameter TAG can be replaced by a compatible attribute tag (code sequence attribute) later. DICOM value multiplicity (VM) specification. This type is used in DICOM dictionary documents. Patterns of valid specifications are: "k", "k-j", "k-n", "n", "k-kn". In these patterns, k and j are integers, k is less than j, and n is the letter n. DICOM value representation types. In the DICOM standard, VR for certain attributes is defined as "other word or byte", "US or SS", or "See Note". Oracle has extended the list of VR types and introduced OWB (for "other word or byte"), USS (for "US or SS"), and EXP (where VR definition does not apply). When an attribute of USS type is encoded into XML, it is automatically encoded as a signed short type. When an attribute of OWB type is encoded into XML, it is automatically encoded into other word type. An example of an attribute with VR type of EXP is the sequence item (FFFE, E000). For compatibility with future DICOM releases, if a new DICOM VR is introduced by the DICOM standard, users can mark such attributes as type "EXT??", where "??" should be replaced by the new VR name.