How to Import PDF to DICOMPDF

Import general PDF files and turn them into DICOM PDF format is not much different to import other file formats, i.e. windows Bitmap and Jpeg images.

Based on the DICOM supplement 104, we made two small programs (VB6 using COM version and CSharp using .NET version) which demonstrate what attributes are needed for making a valid DICOM PDF file.

DicomObjects.NET

    
    DicomDataSet pdf = new DicomDataSet();
    
    // Read in PDF file as Byte array
    byte[] data = File.ReadAllBytes(file);
    
    // ==== Patient Module Attributes ====
    pdf.Add(0x10, 0x10, "Patient Name 123");           // Patient Name
    pdf.Add(0x10, 0x20, 123456);                       // Patient ID
    pdf.Add(0x10, 0x30, "");                           // Patient DOB
    pdf.Add(0x10, 0x40, "O");                          // Patient Sex
    
    // ==== Study Module Attributes ====
    pdf.Add(0x20, 0xD, DicomGlobal.NewUID());          // Study Instance UID
    pdf.Add(0x8, 0x20, "");                            // Study Date
    pdf.Add(0x8, 0x30, "");                            // Study Time
    pdf.Add(0x8, 0x90, "");                            // Referring Physician//s Name
    pdf.Add(0x20, 0x10, 1);                            // Study ID
    pdf.Add(0x8, 0x50, "");                            // Accession Number
    
    // ==== Encapsulated Document Series Module Attributes ====
    pdf.Add(0x8, 0x60, "OT");                          // Modality
    pdf.Add(0x20, 0xE, DicomGlobal.NewUID());          // Series Instance UID
    pdf.Add(0x20, 0x11, 1);                            // Series Number
    
    // ==== General Equipment Module Attributes ====
    pdf.Add(0x8, 0x70, "");                            // Manufacturer
    
    // ==== SC EQUIPMENT MODULE ATTRIBUTES ====
    pdf.Add(0x8, 0x64, "SD");                          // Conversion Type
    
    // ==== Encapsulated Document Module Attributes ====
    pdf.Add(0x20, 0x13, 1);                            // Instance Number
    pdf.Add(0x8, 0x23, "");                            // Content Date
    pdf.Add(0x8, 0x33, "");                            // Content Time
    pdf.Add(0x8, 0x2A, "");                            // Acquisition Datetime
    pdf.Add(0x28, 0x301, "NO");                        // Burned In Annotation
    pdf.Add(0x42, 0x10, "");                           // Document Title
    pdf.Add(0x40, 0xA043, "");                         // Concept Name Code Sequence, a coded representation of the document title
    pdf.Add(0x42, 0x12, "application/pdf");            // MIME Type pf Encapsulated Document
    
    pdf.Add(0x42, 0x11, data);                         // Encapsulated Document stream
                                                       // containing a document encoded according to the MIME Type
    
    // ==== SOP Common ====
    pdf.Add(0x8, 0x16, "1.2.840.10008.5.1.4.1.1.104.1"); // SOP Class UID
    pdf.Add(0x8, 0x18, DicomGlobal.NewUID());            // SOP Instance UID
    
    pdf.Write("c:DICOM_PDF.dcm", "1.2.840.10008.1.2.1");

DicomObjects.COM

  
    Dim g As New DicomGlobal 
    Dim pdf As New DicomDataSet
    Dim pdfData() As Byte
    Dimfile_length As Long
    Dimfnum As Integer 
    
    ' Read in PDF file as Byte array
    CommonDialog1.Filter = "*.pdf|*.pdf"
    CommonDialog1.ShowOpen
    If CommonDialog1.FileName <> "" Then
       file_length = FileLen(CommonDialog1.FileName)
       fnum = FreeFile
       ReDim pdfData(1 To file_length)
       Open CommonDialog1.FileName For Binary As #fnum
       Get #fnum, 1, pdfData
       Close fnum
    Else
       MsgBox "No file specified."
       Exit Sub
    End If
    
    ' ==== Patient Module Attributes ====
    pdf.Attributes.Add &H10, &H10, "Patient Name 123"   ' Patient Name
    pdf.Attributes.Add &H10, &H20, 123456               ' Patient ID
    pdf.Attributes.Add &H10, &H30, ""                   ' Patient DOB
    pdf.Attributes.Add &H10, &H40, "O"                  ' Patient Sex
    
    ' ==== Study Module Attributes ====
    pdf.Attributes.Add &H20, &HD, g.NewUID              ' Study Instance UID
    pdf.Attributes.Add &H8, &H20, ""                    ' Study Date
    pdf.Attributes.Add &H8, &H30, ""                    ' Study Time
    pdf.Attributes.Add &H8, &H90, ""                    ' Referring Physician's Name
    pdf.Attributes.Add &H20, &H10, 1                    ' Study ID
    pdf.Attributes.Add &H8, &H50, ""                    ' Accession Number
    
    ' ==== Encapsulated Document Series Module Attributes ====
    pdf.Attributes.Add &H8, &H60, "OT"                  ' Modality
    pdf.Attributes.Add &H20, &HE, g.NewUID              ' Series Instance UID
    pdf.Attributes.Add &H20, &H11, 1                    ' Series Number
    
    ' ==== General Equipment Module Attributes ====
    pdf.Attributes.Add &H8, &H70, ""                    ' Manufacturer
     
    ' ==== SC EQUIPMENT MODULE ATTRIBUTES ====
    pdf.Attributes.Add &H8, &H64, "SD"                  ' Conversion Type
    
    ' ==== Encapsulated Document Module Attributes ====
    pdf.Attributes.Add &H20, &H13, 1                    ' Instance Number
    pdf.Attributes.Add &H8, &H23, ""                    ' Content Date
    pdf.Attributes.Add &H8, &H33, ""                    ' Content Time
    pdf.Attributes.Add &H8, &H2A, ""                    ' Acquisition Datetime
    pdf.Attributes.Add &H28, &H301, "NO"                ' Burned In Annotation
    pdf.Attributes.Add &H42, &H10, ""                   ' Document Title
    pdf.Attributes.Add &H40, &HA043, ""                 ' Concept Name Code Sequence, a coded representation of the document title
    pdf.Attributes.Add &H42, &H12, "application/pdf"    ' MIME Type pf Encapsulated Document
    
    pdf.Attributes.Add &H42, &H11, pdfData              ' Encapsulated Document stream, containing a document encoded
                                                          according to the MIME Type
    
    ' ==== SOP Common ====
    pdf.Attributes.Add &H8, &H16, "1.2.840.10008.5.1.4.1.1.104.1" ' SOP Class UID
    pdf.Attributes.Add &H8, &H18, g.NewUID              ' SOP Instance UID
    
    '' Write file out
    pdf.WriteFile "c:DICOM_PDF.dcm", True, "1.2.840.10008.1.2.1"

Notes

.NET Setup

Appropriate .NET pdf dlls are required to load DICOM encapsulated PDF. They need to be referenced or simply copied over to the output directory (next to DicomObjects dll’s).

Our download package includes both 32 and 64 bit versions of the PDF dll to suit your program’s “bitness”.

CLR 4.0 package includes  ceTe.DynamicPDF.Viewer.40.x86  &  ceTe.DynamicPDF.Viewer.40.x64

CLR 3.5 package includes  ceTe.DynamicPDF.Viewer.35.x86  &  ceTe.DynamicPDF.Viewer.35.x64

x86 and x64 in the filename specifies what bit a dll is compiled against. Once the DLL’s are in the correct folders, DicomObjects will dynamically load them IF they are needed in your project.

For user defined location of those PDF dll’s, “PDFLibraryLocation” regstring can be set. You can set this by doing the following: 

DicomGlobal.SetRegString("**PDFLibraryLocation**", "<Path to PDFDLL>");

COM Setup

COM uses the 32 bit version of the .NET PDF dll included in the package and it requires the NetWrapper object to bridge between the COM code and the .NET PDF dll.

CLR 3.5 package includes  ceTe.DynamicPDF.Viewer.35.x86  &  NetWrappers

Once the DLL’s are in the correct folders, DicomObjects will dynamically load them IF they are needed in your project.