To search for your DICOM images, you need to enter 1 or more search parameters.  The search parameters can be on any DICOM tag value in the first level.  Nested DICOM tag searches are not supported at this time.

Say we want to search for all ultrasound images.  We know this value is stored in the modality tag.  Using the Common tags window, we find that the modality value is stored in the 0008,0060 tag.

In our search conditions, we enter the following:

You can also double click on the tag in the Common DICOM Tags window to add the search condition for that tag, which generates the following:

If the tags assist option is active, you can use the Tags Assist feature to help write your search condition.

The Image value indicates we want to search on the DICOM image's attribute.  The Tag value indicates we want to search on a DICOM tag value.  The tag value is then enclosed in brackets and single quotes i.e. '(0008,0060)'.  This is the standard format to enter the DICOM tag values.

Finally, we want to only return ultrasound images, meaning the DICOM tag 0008,0060 should be equal to the value US, hence we enter = 'US'.

Once we have entered our search condition, click on the Search files (F5) or press the F5 key to start the search.

If we wanted to search for MRI images, we would enter the following:

See also:

•text functions

•number functions

•working with date and time

•working with patient age

•searching based on file attributes

•tag shortcuts

Using OR

Continuing from the example above, say we wanted to retrieved both ultrasound and MRI images.  We then write the condition as follows:

We now have 2 search conditions.  Each condition needs to be enclosed in brackets:

and combined using the OR condition.

Note that you can write the search condition on a single line like this:

We are only writing it on separate lines here to improve clarity.

Using AND

The AND condition allows you to combine 2 or more conditions.  If we want to search for all ultrasound heart images, we would write the following:

You can write as many conditions as you require using the OR and AND conditions, but ensure that each condition is enclosed in the brackets.  For e.g. the following searches for all CT and ultrasound heart images.

The brackets play a very important role in evaluating the conditions.  There are 2 'blocks' in this search condition:

This first block (in green) searches for CT or ultrasound image, and the second block (in red) searches for heart images.  Writing the conditions on multiple lines and indenting them (using the TAB key) helps to make the conditions clearer.

Using comments

You can add comments to your search conditions to make them easier to understand.  A comment starts with 2 forward slashes e.g.

Adding comments to your search conditions also make it easier to reuse your previous search conditions.  Without the comment, you will see this in the search condition history menu.

Only a bracket is displayed because that is the first line of our search condition.  With a comment on the first line, we have a better idea of what search conditions we were previously using.