Ed de Moel

DICOM Terms and Abbreviations

DICOM Terms and Abbreviations

PACS

PACS: Picture Archiving and Communication System

PDS

PDS: Personal Display System

PDU

PDU: Protocol Data Unit, packet that is created at the DICOM lower level protocol.

PDV

PDV: Protocol Data Value, packet that is created at the DICOM lower level protocol.

PN

PN: Abbreviation for a Value Representation: Person Name. For details see here.

PPP

PPP: Point-to-Point Protocol

PT

PT: Abbreviation for a type of modality: Positron Emission Tomography (PET).

Patient Information

Patient Information: The demographic data pertaining to a radiology patient.

Pixel

Pixel: Smallest, single element or dot of an image.

Presentation Context

Presentation Context: Specification of the context that is negotiated and used for DICOM message exchange. It consists of the Presentation Context ID (a temporary number, assigned for the duration of an Association), and the Abstract and Transfer Syntax.
Means of making sure both sides of communication agree what they're going to be doing and how they're going to encode the data.

Presentation context I.D.

Presentation context I.D.: Unique identifier for a Presentation Context.

Print queue

Print queue: A group of images waiting to print.

Private Data Element

Private Data Element: Additional Data Element, defined by an implementor, to communicate information that is not contained in Standard Data Elements. Private Data elements have odd Group Numbers.

Profile

Profile: A set of operations or service to be performed. Similar to an "application profile," but more than just the application. It includes: the application; the application's interface to the network; a set of options. A profile forms the basis for judging DICOM conformance. A product doesn't conform to the DICOM standard, but rather to one of the available DICOM profiles.

Protocol

Protocol: Data format; the format data must be in for peer-to-peer communication.

Protocol data unit

Protocol data unit: PDU. The block used to encode data that passes over an association.

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X

O-Tech Parts of this document are taken (with permission) from
Herman Oosterwijk's "DICOM Expert" Cheat Sheet
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