F.2 DICOM JSON Model

F.2 DICOM JSON Model
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F.2.1 Multiple Results Structure

Multiple results returned in JSON are organized as a single top-level array of JSON objects. This differs from the Native DICOM Model, which returns multiple results as a multi-part collection of singular XML documents.

F.2.1.1 Examples

F.2.1.1.1 Native DICOM Model

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" xml:space="preserve" ?>
<NativeDicomModel>
  <DicomAttribute tag="0020000D" vr="UI" keyword="StudyInstanceUID">
    <Value number="1">1.2.392.200036.9116.2.2.2.1762893313.1029997326.945873</Value>
  </DicomAttribute>
</NativeDicomModel>
…
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" xml:space="preserve" ?>
<NativeDicomModel>
  <DicomAttribute tag="0020000D" vr="UI" keyword="StudyInstanceUID">
    <Value number="1">1.2.444.200036.9116.2.2.2.1762893313.1029997326.945876</Value>
  </DicomAttribute>
</NativeDicomModel>

F.2.1.1.2 DICOM JSON Model

[
  {
     "0020000D": {
      "vr": "UI",
      "Value": [ "1.2.392.200036.9116.2.2.2.1762893313.1029997326.945873" ]
    }
  }
  {
    "0020000D" : {
      "vr": "UI",
      "Value": [ "1.2.392.200036.9116.2.2.2.2162893313.1029997326.945876" ]
    }
  }
]

F.2.2 DICOM JSON Model Object Structure

The DICOM JSON Model object is a representation of a DICOM Data Set.

The internal structure of the DICOM JSON Model object is a sequence of objects representing attributes within the DICOM Data Set.

Attribute objects within a DICOM JSON Model object must be ordered by their property name in ascending order.

Group Length (gggg,0000) attributes shall not be included in a DICOM JSON Model object.

The name of each attribute object is:

The eight character uppercase hexadecimal representation of a DICOM Tag

Each attribute object contains the following named child objects:

vr: A string encoding the DICOM Value Representation. The mapping between DICOM Value Representations and JSON Value Representations is described in Section F.2.3.
At most one of:
- Value: An array containing one of:
  - The Value Field elements of a DICOM attribute with a VR other than PN, SQ, OB, OD, OF, OW, or UN (described in Section F.2.4)
    
    The encoding of empty Value Field elements is described in Section F.2.5
  - The Value Field elements of a DICOM attribute with a VR of PN. The non-empty name components of each element are encoded as a JSON strings with the following names:
    
    Alphabetic
    
    Ideographic
    
    Phonetic
  - JSON DICOM Model objects corresponding to the sequence items of an attribute with a VR of SQ
    
    Empty sequence items are represented by empty objects
- BulkDataURI: A string encoding the WADO-RS URL of a bulk data item describing the Value Field of an enclosing Attribute with a VR of FL, FD, IS, LT, OB, OD, OF, OW, SL, SS, ST, UL, UN, US, or UT (described in Section F.2.6)
- InlineBinary: A base64 string encoding the Value Field of an enclosing Attribute with a VR of OB, OD, OF, OW, or UN (described in Section F.2.7)

Note

For Private Data Elements, the group and element numbers will follow the rules specified in Section 7.8.1 in PS3.5
The person name representation is more closely aligned with the DICOM Data Element representation than the DICOM PS3.19 XML representation.

F.2.3 DICOM JSON Value Representation

The value representation (VR) is included in each DICOM JSON Model attribute object and named "vr". For example:

"vr": "CS"

All DICOM Value Representations are mapped to specified JSON Data Types (see Table F.2.3-1). The JSON encodings shall conform to the Definition, Character Repertoire (if applicable) and Length of Value specified for that Value Representation (see Section 6.2 “Value Representation (VR)” in PS3.5 ) with the following exceptions:

Attributes with a Value Representation of AT shall be restricted to eight character uppercase hexadecimal representation of a DICOM Tag

Table F.2.3-1. DICOM VR to JSON Data Type Mapping

VR Name	Type	JSON Data Type
AE	Application Entity	String
AS	Age String	String
AT	Attribute Tag	String
CS	Code String	String
DA	Date	String
DS	Decimal	Number
DT	Date Time	String
FL	Floating Point Single	Number
FD	Floating Point Double	Number
IS	Integer String	Number
LO	Long String	String
LT	Long Text	String
OB	Other Byte String	Base64 encoded string
OD	Other Double String	Base64 encoded string
OF	Other Float String	Base64 encoded string
OW	Other Word String	Base64 encoded string
PN	Person Name	Object containing Person Name component groups as strings (see Section F.2.2)
SH	Short String	String
SL	Signed Long	Number
SQ	Sequence	Array containing DICOM JSON Objects
SS	Signed Short	Number
ST	Short Text	String
TM	Time	String
UI	UID	String
UL	Unsigned Long	Number
UN	Unknown	Base64 encoded string
UR	URI	String
US	Unsigned Short	Number
UT	Unlimited Text	String

Although data, such as dates, are represented in the DICOM JSON model as strings, it is expected that they will be treated in the same manner as the original attribute as defined by Chapter 6 in PS3.6 .

F.2.4 DICOM JSON Value Multiplicity

The value or values of a given DICOM attribute are given in the "Value" array. The value multiplicity (VM) is not contained in the DICOM JSON object.

For example:

"Value": [ "bar", "foo" ]

or:

"Value": [ "bar" ]

F.2.5 DICOM JSON Model Null Values

If an attribute is present in DICOM but empty (i.e., Value Length is 0), it shall be preserved in the DICOM JSON attribute object containing no "Value", "BulkDataURI" or "InlineBinary".

If a multi-valued attribute has one or more empty values these are represented as "null" array elements. For example:

"Value": [ "bar", null, "foo" ]

If a sequence contains empty items these are represented as empty JSON object in the array.

"Value": [ { … }, { }, { … } ]

F.2.6 BulkDataURI

If an attribute contains a "BulkDataURI" , this contains the URI of a bulk data element as defined in Table A.1.5-2 in PS3.19 .

F.2.7 InlineBinary

If an attribute contains an "InlineBinary", this contains the base64 encoding of the enclosing attribute's Value Field.

There is a single InlineBinary value representing the entire Value Field, and not one per Value in the case where the Value Multiplicity is greater than one. E.g., a LUT with 4096 16 bit entries that may be encoded in DICOM with a Value Representation of OW, with a VL of 8192 and a VM of 1, or a US VR with a VL of 8192 and a VM of 4096 would both be represented as a single InlineBinary string.

All rules (e.g., byte ordering and swapping) in DICOM PS3.5 apply.

Note

Implementers should in particular pay attention the PS3.5 rules regarding the value representations of OD, OF and OW.