Photoshop® CS4 Bible

28.1. Using DICOM Medical Scans in Photoshop

DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) is a standard for storing and transmitting information generated by medical imaging devices, such as X-ray, CT, PET, magnetic resonance, and ultrasound devices. The communications part of the DICOM standard refers to its networking component: It is made for the networked hardware, such as scanners, printers, servers, and workstations with redundant backup, that form a PACS (picture archiving and communication system) used by medical facilities. A sample DICOM image is shown in Figure 28.1.

Figure 28.1. A DICOM scan produced by an X-ray machine

In addition to pixel data, DICOM files contain patient information, which helps to ensure that an image never gets separated from the patient it's associated with. This information is viewable in Photoshop's File Info dialog box, or in the Metadata panel in Adobe Bridge. DICOM images can also contain multiple frames, or slices, combining data from a multi-part scan.

28.1.1. Opening DICOM files in Photoshop

Using Photoshop CS4, DICOM images can be imported and edited or annotated using any of Photoshop's tools. One benefit of Photoshop's support for the format is that physicians and medical professionals are no longer tied to PACS proprietary software. Instead, they can now review, analyze, edit, and prepare images for publication using one ...