Provided by: dcmtk_3.6.2-3build3_amd64 bug

NAME

       dcm2json - Convert DICOM file and data set to JSON

SYNOPSIS

       dcm2json [options] dcmfile-in [jsonfile-out]

DESCRIPTION

       The  dcm2json  utility converts the contents of a DICOM file (file format or raw data set)
       to JSON (JavaScript Object Notation). The output refers to the 'DICOM JSON  Model',  which
       is found in DICOM Part 18 Section F.

       If  dcm2json  reads  a raw data set (DICOM data without a file format meta-header) it will
       attempt to guess the transfer syntax by examining the first few bytes of the file.  It  is
       not  always  possible to correctly guess the transfer syntax and it is better to convert a
       data set to a file format whenever possible  (using  the  dcmconv  utility).  It  is  also
       possible  to  use  the  -f and -t[ieb] options to force dcm2json to read a data set with a
       particular transfer syntax.

PARAMETERS

       dcmfile-in    DICOM input filename to be converted

       jsonfile-out  JSON output filename (default: stdout)

OPTIONS

   general options
         -h    --help
                 print this help text and exit

               --version
                 print version information and exit

               --arguments
                 print expanded command line arguments

         -q    --quiet
                 quiet mode, print no warnings and errors

         -v    --verbose
                 verbose mode, print processing details

         -d    --debug
                 debug mode, print debug information

         -ll   --log-level  [l]evel: string constant
                 (fatal, error, warn, info, debug, trace)
                 use level l for the logger

         -lc   --log-config  [f]ilename: string
                 use config file f for the logger

   input options
       input file format:

         +f    --read-file
                 read file format or data set (default)

         +fo   --read-file-only
                 read file format only

         -f    --read-dataset
                 read data set without file meta information

       input transfer syntax:

         -t=   --read-xfer-auto
                 use TS recognition (default)

         -td   --read-xfer-detect
                 ignore TS specified in the file meta header

         -te   --read-xfer-little
                 read with explicit VR little endian TS

         -tb   --read-xfer-big
                 read with explicit VR big endian TS

         -ti   --read-xfer-implicit
                 read with implicit VR little endian TS

   output options
       output format:

         +fc   --formatted-code
                 enable whitespace formatting (default)

                 # prints additional spaces and newlines for increased
                 # readability

         -fc   --compact-code
                 print only required characters

         +m    --write-meta
                 write data set with meta information
                 (warning: not conforming to the DICOM standard)

JSON Format

       The basic structure of the JSON output created from a DICOM file looks like the  following
       (see DICOM Part 18 Section F for details):

       {
           "00080005": {
               "vr": "CS",
               "Value": [
                   "ISO_IR 192"
               ]
           },
           "00080020": {
               "vr": "DT",
               "Value": [
                   "20130409"
               ]
           },
           "00080030": {
               "vr": "TM",
               "Value": [
                   "131600.0000"
               ]
           },
           "00080050": {
               "vr": "SH",
               "Value": [
                   "11235813"
               ]
           },
           "00080056": {
               "vr": "CS",
               "Value": [
                   "ONLINE"
               ]
           },
           "00080061": {
               "vr": "CS",
               "Value": [
                   "CT",
                   "PET"
               ]
           },
           "00080090": {
               "vr": "PN",
               "Value": [
                 {
                   "Alphabetic": "^Bob^^Dr."
                 }
               ]
           },
           "00081190": {
               "vr": "UR",
               "Value": [
                   "http://wado.nema.org/studies/
                   1.2.392.200036.9116.2.2.2.1762893313.1029997326.945873"
               ]
           },
           "00090010": {
               "vr": "LO",
               "Value": [
                   "Vendor A"
               ]
           },
           "00091002": {
               "vr": "UN",
               "InlineBinary": "z0x9c8v7"
           },
           "00100010": {
               "vr": "PN",
               "Value": [
                 {
                   "Alphabetic": "Wang^XiaoDong"
                 }
               ]
           },
           "00100020": {
               "vr": "LO",
               "Value": [
                   "12345"
               ]
           },
           "00100021": {
               "vr": "LO",
               "Value": [
                   "Hospital A"
               ]
           },
           "00100030": {
               "vr": "DT",
               "Value": [
                   "19670701"
               ]
           },
           "00100040": {
               "vr": "CS",
               "Value": [
                   "M"
               ]
           },
           "00101002": {
               "vr": "SQ",
               "Value": [
                   {
                       "00100020": {
                           "vr": "LO",
                           "Value": [
                               "54321"
                           ]
                       },
                       "00100021": {
                           "vr": "LO",
                           "Value": [
                               "Hospital B"
                           ]
                       }
                   },
                   {
                       "00100020": {
                           "vr": "LO",
                           "Value": [
                               "24680"
                           ]
                       },
                       "00100021": {
                           "vr": "LO",
                           "Value": [
                               "Hospital C"
                           ]
                       }
                   }
               ]
           },
           "0020000D": {
               "vr": "UI",
               "Value": [
                   "1.2.392.200036.9116.2.2.2.1762893313.1029997326.945873"
               ]
           },
           "00200010": {
               "vr": "SH",
               "Value": [
                   "11235813"
               ]
           },
           "00201206": {
               "vr": "IS",
               "Value": [
                   4
               ]
           },
           "00201208": {
               "vr": "IS",
               "Value": [
                   942
               ]
           }
       }

   Bulk Data
       Binary  data,  i.e.  DICOM  element values with Value Representations (VR) of OB or OW, as
       well as OD, OF and UN values are by default not written to  the  JSON  output  because  of
       their size. Instead, for each element, a new Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) is being
       generated and written as an value of a BulkDataURI JSON  element.  So  far,  there  is  no
       possibility  to  write  an  additional file to hold the binary data for each of the binary
       data chunks.

NOTES

   Character Encoding
       dcm2json always tries to output in UTF-8 encoding. If this is not possible,  e.g.  because
       there is no support for character set conversion, ASCII is used instead (which is a subset
       of UTF-8).

LOGGING

       The level of logging output of the various command line tools and underlying libraries can
       be specified by the user. By default, only errors and warnings are written to the standard
       error stream. Using option --verbose also informational messages like  processing  details
       are  reported.  Option  --debug  can be used to get more details on the internal activity,
       e.g. for debugging purposes. Other logging levels can  be  selected  using  option  --log-
       level.  In  --quiet mode only fatal errors are reported. In such very severe error events,
       the application will usually terminate. For more details on the different logging  levels,
       see documentation of module 'oflog'.

       In  case  the logging output should be written to file (optionally with logfile rotation),
       to syslog (Unix) or the  event  log  (Windows)  option  --log-config  can  be  used.  This
       configuration  file also allows for directing only certain messages to a particular output
       stream and for filtering certain messages based on the module or  application  where  they
       are generated. An example configuration file is provided in <etcdir>/logger.cfg.

COMMAND LINE

       All  command line tools use the following notation for parameters: square brackets enclose
       optional values (0-1), three trailing dots  indicate  that  multiple  values  are  allowed
       (1-n), a combination of both means 0 to n values.

       Command  line  options  are  distinguished  from  parameters by a leading '+' or '-' sign,
       respectively. Usually, order and position of command line options are arbitrary (i.e. they
       can  appear anywhere). However, if options are mutually exclusive the rightmost appearance
       is used. This behavior conforms to the standard evaluation rules of common Unix shells.

       In addition, one or more command files can be specified using an '@' sign as a  prefix  to
       the  filename  (e.g.  @command.txt). Such a command argument is replaced by the content of
       the corresponding text file (multiple whitespaces are treated as a single separator unless
       they appear between two quotation marks) prior to any further evaluation. Please note that
       a command file cannot contain another command file. This  simple  but  effective  approach
       allows  one  to summarize common combinations of options/parameters and avoids longish and
       confusing command lines (an example is provided in file <datadir>/dumppat.txt).

ENVIRONMENT

       The dcm2json utility will attempt  to  load  DICOM  data  dictionaries  specified  in  the
       DCMDICTPATH environment variable. By default, i.e. if the DCMDICTPATH environment variable
       is not set, the file <datadir>/dicom.dic will be loaded unless  the  dictionary  is  built
       into the application (default for Windows).

       The  default  behavior  should  be preferred and the DCMDICTPATH environment variable only
       used when alternative data dictionaries are required. The DCMDICTPATH environment variable
       has  the  same  format  as  the  Unix  shell PATH variable in that a colon (':') separates
       entries. On Windows systems, a semicolon (';') is used as a separator. The data dictionary
       code  will attempt to load each file specified in the DCMDICTPATH environment variable. It
       is an error if no data dictionary can be loaded.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2016-2017 by OFFIS e.V., Escherweg 2, 26121 Oldenburg, Germany.