NAME

       gdcmscu - Tool to execute a DICOM Query/Retrieve operation

SYNOPSIS

       gdcmscu [OPTION]...[OPERATION]...HOSTNAME...[PORT]...

        Execute a DICOM Q/R operation to HOSTNAME, using port PORT (104 when not specified)

DESCRIPTION

       The gdcmscu command line program is the tool to execute DICOM Query/Retrieve operation. It
       supports:

       • C-ECHO (SCU)
       • C-FIND (SCU)
       • C-STORE (SCU)
       • C-MOVE (SCU/SCP) C-MOVE operation are executed using two different ports (one for the
         SCU and one for the SCP).

PARAMETERS

options

   options
         -H --hostname    %s  Hostname.
         -p --port        %d  Port number.
            --aetitle     %s  Set calling AE Title.
            --call        %s  Set called AE Title.
   mode options
            --echo           C-ECHO (default when none).
            --store          C-STORE.
            --find           C-FIND.
            --move           C-MOVE.
   C-STORE options
         -i --input       %s   DICOM filename
         -r --recursive        recursively process (sub-)directories
            --store-query %s   Store constructed query in file
   C-FIND/C-MOVE options
            --patientroot       C-FIND Patient Root Model.
            --studyroot         C-FIND Study Root Model.

            --patient           C-FIND Query on Patient Info (cannot be used with --studyroot).
            --study             C-FIND Query on Study Info.
            --series            C-FIND Query on Series Info.
            --image             C-FIND Query on Image Info.
            --key   %d,%d[=%s]  0123,4567=VALUE for specifying search criteria (wildcard allowed)
                                With --key, leave blank (ie, --key 10,20="" or --key 10,20) to retrieve values
   C-MOVE options
         -o --output    %s      DICOM filename / directory
            --port-scp  %d      Port for incoming associations
            --key   %d,%d[=%s   0123,4567=VALUE for specifying search criteria (wildcard not allowed)
                                Note that C-MOVE supports the same queries as C-FIND, but no wildcards are allowed
   general options
         -h   --help
                print this help text and exit

         -v   --version
                print version information and exit

         -V   --verbose
                verbose mode (warning+error).

         -W   --warning
                warning mode, print warning information

         -E   --error
                error mode, print error information

         -D   --debug
                debug mode, print debug information

         -L   --log-file
                specify a filename where to write logs

         --queryhelp
                print query help
   environment variable
         GDCM_ROOT_UID Root UID

C-ECHO usage

       gdcmscu is a great tool to test if a DICOM server is up. For example to send a C-ECHO to
       server dicom.example.com using port 104, use:
       $ gdcmscu dicom.example.com
       or if you prefer being explicit:
       $ gdcmscu --echo dicom.example.com 104
       Using basic security your DICOM server might require that you set the appropriate called
       AE-TITLE
       $ gdcmscu --echo dicom.example.com 11112 --call SERVSCP
       If you want to specifiy your own AE-TITLE (default is GDCMSCU), simply use:
       $ gdcmscu --echo dicom.example.com 11112 --call SERVSCP --aetitle MYSCU
       For example you could test on the DICOM server provided by DICOMObject team:
       $ gdcmscu www.dicomserver.co.uk 11112

C-STORE usage

       C-STORE is the operation that allow sending a DICOM file to a remote DICOM server. For
       instance to send a file called myfile.dcm
       $ gdcmscu --store dicom.example.com 104 myfile.dcm
       or if you prefer being explicit:
       $ gdcmscu --store dicom.example.com 104 -i myfile.dcm
       You can even send multiple files using the same association:
       $ gdcmscu --store dicom.example.com 104 myfile1.dcm myfile2.dcm myfile3.dcm ...

C-FIND usage

       gdcmscu also allow querying a DICOM server. This is the C-FIND operation, for example to
       find all DICOM Instance where PatientsName match a particular pattern, usage is simply:
       $ gdcmscu --find --patient dicom.example.com 11112 --patientroot --key 10,10,"A*"
       We also support a DCMTK compatible convention:
       $ gdcmscu --find --patient dicom.example.com 11112 --patientroot --key 10,10="A*"
       When an attribute is set without a value it will be part of the output result:
       $ gdcmscu --find --patient dicom.example.com 11112 --call MI2B2 --patientroot -k 10,10="A*" -k 10,20

C-MOVE usage

       C-MOVE is the operation to retrieve a DICOM instance from a remote DICOM server. Most of
       the time, it is a subsequent operation after a C-FIND query. To retrieve a DICOM instance
       where PatientID is ABCD1234, simply execute:
       $ gdcmscu --move --patient --aetitle ACME1 --call ACME_STORE dicom.example.com 5678 --patientroot -k 10,20="ABCD1234" --port-scp 1234
       WARNING For this operation to work you need information from the DICOM server you are
       communicating with. Only the DICOM server you are sending a C-MOVE query will be
       reponsible for sending back incoming associations (the actual C-STORE SCP). Therefore you
       need to make sure that you mapping of (AE-TITLE,PortNumber) is properly set on the DICOM
       server side as well as the port for incoming association (--port-scp).
       gdcmscu does not currently support external C-STORE association (C-STORE request sent to
       an external SCP application).

patientroot notes

       The flag --patientroot is just simply a wrapper around the syntax --key 8,52=PATIENT For
       instance one would write using DCMTK syntax:
       $ findscu --patient dicom.example.com 11112 --key 8,52=PATIENT --key 10,10="F*"
       This would become using GDCM syntax:
       $ gdcmscu --find --patient dicom.example.com 11112 --patientroot --key 10,10="F*"

Debugging

       This is sometime difficult to investigate why a connection to a remote DICOM server cannot
       be done. Some recommendations follows:
       Always try to do a simple C-ECHO at first. If you cannot get the C-ECHO to work none of
       the other operations will work
       Before trying to a C-MOVE operation, make sure you can execute the C-FIND equivalent query
       first.
       When doing a C-MOVE operation you really need to communicate with the PACS admin as the C-
       MOVE operation is different from the other lower level operation such as HTTP/GET. When
       doing a C-MOVE, the server will communicate back using another chanel (could be different
       port) using it's internal database to map an AE-TITLE back to the destination IP. Indeed
       the C-MOVE operation by design does not always use your incoming IP adress to send back
       the resulting dataset. Instead it uses a mapping of AE-TITLE to IP adress to send back any
       results. So pay particular attention to the spelling of your AE-TITLE and your incoming
       port (which may be different from the port to connect to the server).

Port Warning

       Watch out that port ranging [1-1024] are reserved for admin and not easily accessible
       unless granted special priviliges. Therefore the default 104 DICOM port might not be
       accessible to all your users.

C-STORE Warnings

       When constructing a C-STORE operation, gdcmscu will always use the Media Storage as found
       in the file to be sent. For encapsulated DICOM file (eg. RLE Lossless) the receiving SCP
       server might not support this compression and will legitemely refuse the C-STORE
       operation. In this case users have to manually convert to a non-compressed form this
       particular file:
       $ gdcmconv --raw compressed.dcm non_compressed.dcm

C-MOVE Warnings

       At the moment gdcmscu only supports non-compressed transfer syntax. It will always request
       DataSet using Implicit VR Little Endian Transfer Syntax during a C-MOVE operation.

C-FIND IMAGE level (Composite Object Instance)

       One should pay attention that gdcmscu --find and findscu are not completely equivalent.
       Using gdcmscu --find, all Unique Keys will be added automatically. One can therefore
       execute something like this:
       $ gdcmscu --find --patientroot --image --key 8,18=1.2.3.4.5.6 dicom.example.com 11112
       instead of the more explicit form
       $ gdcmscu --find --patientroot --image --key 8,18=1.2.3.4.5.6 dicom.example.com 11112 --key 10,20 --key 20,d --key 20,e
       This would also be equivalent to:
       $ findscu --patient --key 8,52=IMAGE --key 8,18=1.2.3.4.5.6 dicom.example.com 11112 --key 10,20 --key 20,d --key 20,e

Storing the Query

       It is also possible to store the query:
       gdcmscu --find --patient --patientroot dicom.example.com 11112 --key 10,20="*" --key 10,10 --store-query query.dcm
       One can then check the DataSet values send for the query:
       $ gdcmdump query.dcm
       # Dicom-File-Format

       # Dicom-Meta-Information-Header
       # Used TransferSyntax:

       # Dicom-Data-Set
       # Used TransferSyntax: 1.2.840.10008.1.2
       (0008,0005) ?? (CS) [ISO_IR 192]                                  # 10,1-n Specific Character Set
       (0008,0052) ?? (CS) [PATIENT ]                                    # 8,1 Query/Retrieve Level
       (0010,0010) ?? (PN) (no value)                                    # 0,1 Patient's Name
       (0010,0020) ?? (LO) [* ]                                          # 2,1 Patient ID
       The Specific Character Set was set to 'ISO_IR 192' as the locale encoding of the system
       was found automatically by gdcmscu to be UTF-8.
       This means that the following command line will properly setup the Query with the
       appropriate Charset to be executed correctly:
       $ gdcmscu --find --patient --patientroot dicom.example.com 11112 --key 10,10="*Jérôme*"
       the query is always executed on the server side (SCP), some implementations does not
       support string matching with different Character Set.

DICOM Public Servers

       An up to date list of DICOM Public Servers can be found at:
       http://www.dclunie.com/medical-image-faq/html/part8.html#DICOMPublicServers

SEE ALSO

       gdcmconv(1)

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright Insight Software Consortium