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Format

Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine File Format

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Summary

Name
Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine File Format
Identifiers
  • MIME: application/dicom
  • PUID: fmt/574
Format type
Dataset
Description
Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) is a standard for handling, storing, printing, and transmitting information in medical imaging. It includes a file format definition and a network communications protocol. The communication protocol is an application protocol that uses TCP/IP to communicate between systems. DICOM files can be exchanged between two entities that are capable of receiving image and patient data in DICOM format. The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) holds the copyright to this standard. It was developed by the DICOM Standards Committee, whose members are also partly members of NEMA.
Note
https://dicom.nema.org/medical/dicom/current/output/pdf/part10.pdf https://dicom.nema.org/medical/dicom/current/output/pdf/part12.pdf https://www.dicomstandard.org/
File extensions
dcm
Submitted by
Tessella / Tessella

Internal signatures

DICOM

Description
BOF; Offset: 128; Magic bytes: 'DICM'. Please see the specification attached with this entry, which states that any format with string 'DCM' at the 128th byte is considered to be a DICOM file format.
Provenance
http://medical.nema.org/Dicom/2011/11_10pu.pdf https://dicom.nema.org/medical/dicom/current/output/pdf/part12.pdf 09/2022- Amended signature to disregard first 127 bytes according to specification. Added links to specification and references, altered description. Submitted by University Medical Center Utrecht. 11/2023 (v.115)- Max-offset modified for BOF signature to allow for more exact signature identification. Internally researched.

Byte sequences

Min Frag Length
Absolute from BOF
Offset
128
Max offset
0
Byte Sequence
4449434D
Endianness
None

Changelog

  • V118

    Release date
    30 April 2024

    • Updated

      Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine File Format: Alias 'DICOM' added. Submitted by Preservica.

  • V115

    Release date
    15 November 2023

    • Updated

      Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine File Format: Max-offset modified for BOF signature to allow for more exact signature identification. Submitted by Digital Preservation Department, The National Archives (UK).

  • V108

    Release date
    5 September 2022

    • Added signature

      Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine File Format: Signature researched and samples provided by University Medical Center Utrecht.

    • Updated

      Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine File Format: Amended signature to disregard first 127 bytes according to specification. Added links to specification and references, altered description. Submitted by University Medical Center Utrecht.

  • V84

    Release date
    21 January 2016

    • Updated

      Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine File Format: Added MIME.

  • V70

    Release date
    28 August 2013

    • Added format

      Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine file format: Outline Entry submitted by Tessella.

    • Added signature

      Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine file format: Signature provided by Tessella.