pynetdicom3

A Python 2.7/3+ implementation of the DICOM networking protocol, originally based on pynetdicom.

Description

DICOM is the international standard for medical images and related information. It defines the formats and communication protocols for media exchange in radiology, cardiology, radiotherapy and other medical domains.

pynetdicom3 is a pure Python (2.7/3+) program that implements the DICOM networking protocol. Working with pydicom, it allows the easy creation of DICOM clients (Service Class Users or SCUs) and servers (Service Class Providers or SCPs).

The main user class is AE, which is used to represent a DICOM Application Entity. Once the AE has been created then you would typically either:

Start the application as an SCP using AE.start() and wait for incoming association requests
Use the application as an SCU by requesting an association with a peer SCP via the AE.associate(addr, port) method, which returns an Association thread.

Once the application is associated with a peer, DICOM data can be sent between them by utilising the DIMSE-C services (see DICOM Standard PS3.7, Sections 7.5, 9 and 10).

Supported SCU Services

When the AE is acting as an SCU and an association has been established with a peer SCP, the following DIMSE-C services are available (provided the peer supports the corresponding Service Classes):

C-ECHO: Association.send_c_echo() used to verify end-to-end communications with the peer.
C-STORE: Association.send_c_store(dataset) requests the storage of the Composite SOP Instance dataset by the peer.
C-FIND: Association.send_c_find(dataset) requests the peer search its set of managed SOP Instances for those that match the attributes given in dataset.
C-GET: Association.send_c_get(dataset) requests the peer search its set of managed SOP Instances for those that match the attributes given in dataset then return those matching Instances to the SCU.
C-MOVE: Association.send_c_move(dataset, move_aet) requests the peer search its set of managed SOP Instances for those that match the attributes given in dataset and then copy those matching Instances to the AE with title move_aet over a new association.

Where dataset is a pydicom Dataset object. See the SCU Examples and the Association documentation for more information.

Supported SCP Services

When the AE is acting as an SCP the following DIMSE-C services are available to the peer once an association has been established. With the exception of on_c_echo(), the user is expected to handle the required operations by implementing the following AE callbacks:

C-ECHO: AE.on_c_echo()
C-STORE: AE.on_c_store(dataset)
C-FIND: AE.on_c_find(dataset) and AE.on_c_find_cancel()
C-GET: AE.on_c_get(dataset) and AE.on_c_get_cancel()
C-MOVE: AE.on_c_move(dataset, move_aet) and AE.on_c_move_cancel()

Where dataset is a pydicom Dataset object. See the SCP Examples and the AE documentation for more information.

Installation -----------Dependencies ~~~~~~~~~~~~ pydicom >= 1.0.0a1

Installing from github

$ git clone https://github.com/pydicom/pynetdicom3.git
$ cd pynetdicom3
$ python setup.py install

Examples

Send a DICOM C-ECHO to a peer Verification SCP (at TCP/IP address addr, listen port number port):

from pynetdicom3 import AE

# The Verification SOP Class has a UID of 1.2.840.10008.1.1
#   we can use the UID string directly
ae = AE(scu_sop_class=['1.2.840.10008.1.1'])

# Associate with a peer DICOM AE
assoc = ae.associate(addr, port)

if assoc.is_established:
    # Send a DIMSE C-ECHO request to the peer
    assoc.send_c_echo()

    # Release the association
    assoc.release()

Create a DICOM C-ECHO listen SCP on port 11112:

from pynetdicom3 import AE, VerificationSOPClass

# Or we can use the inbuilt Verification SOP Class
ae = AE(port=11112, scp_sop_class=[VerificationSOPClass])

# Start the SCP
ae.start()

Send the DICOM CTImageStorage dataset in file-in.dcm to a peer Storage SCP (at TCP/IP address addr, listen port number port):