DVT is an independent DICOM Validation tool provided for free by Philips and ICT Automatisering, you can download this product from http://www.dvtk.org/

DVT provides as range of scripts that can be used to validate many aspects of DICOM.

Media Validation using DVT

• To validate a DICOM file open DVT and click File
• Choose the open option
• Change the Files of Type filter to ‘Session files’
• Open the Media session file the location depends on where on you machine DVT is installed e.g. C:\Program Files\DVT\media\test001.ses
• The script name should then be listed in the tree view.
• Double click the session name in the tree view and a dialogue box will appear.
• Locate and select the Dicom file you wish to validate and click open.
• DVT will assess the file for any Dicom anomalies and display the results. The results are stored as xml files.

Note: a validation error(s) doesn’t necessarily mean that a DICOM file will not be handled by other systems but it does indicate that the file is in some way illegal with regards to the DICOM standard. To guarantee interoperability with other systems it is advised that image manufactures ensure that all their DICOM files are legal DICOM SOP instances.

Limitations of DVT, especially for network use

We are often asked by developers why their SCP applications “fail” tests made using the DVT SCU examples. This is because DVT runs as a strict “script” test tool, and expects to get back exactly what the script demands, not just any good DICOM. If the script you are running on DVT (e.g. the standard MWL SCU script) ONLY expects TWO responses, then it will fail ( including disconcertingly, doing a disconnect, leading to an association closed error) if sent more than two even if those responses are otherwise perfectly legal DICOM.