Understanding DICOM file contents is essential for medical imaging development, troubleshooting, and quality assurance. This tutorial shows you how to build a comprehensive DICOM metadata viewer in C# that extracts and displays patient information, study details, and technical imaging parameters.
What is DICOM Metadata? DICOM files contain two main components: pixel data (the actual image) and metadata (information about the image). Metadata includes:
Patient demographics: Name, ID, birth date, sex Study information: Date, time, description, referring physician Series details: Modality, body part, imaging protocol Image parameters: Dimensions, pixel spacing, window/level settings Equipment information: Manufacturer, model, software version A metadata viewer helps developers inspect these attributes for debugging, validation, and data analysis.
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