DSRTypes::checkForValidReference too strict ?

[Tim]

Hi there,

I happened to have a UID which was rejected by DSRTypes::checkForValidReference because it has a zero. Something like "1.2.276.0.7230010". To be fair, it says in the header " Both the integer number 0 and a leading 0 for the numbers are forbidden.".

However, I think that a single zero does constitute a valid DICOM UID.

Doesn't it ?

[J. Riesmeier]

The purpose of DSRTypes::checkForValidReference() is not to check Unique Identifiers (UID) as you seem to assume. The documentation clearly says: "check string for valid reference (as used for by-reference relationships)". Therefore, your sample string is invalid. See DICOM PS3.3 Section C.17.3.2.5 for details.

[Tim]

Ah.

Yes - I was assuming that it should check for UIDs. I think I used to use a UID test function, and I changed it to this whilst upgrading to DCMTK 3.6.3.

Worse than that, I think that I am using the UID as the reference value for an image. I suppose there should be an extra layer of indirection, so the UID should go into a single Image node, and that any nodes refering to the image should use the node-based reference.

Well, I will go and read again and hopefully understand better this time

Many thanks for putting me right !

Tim

[J. Riesmeier]

Yes - I was assuming that it should check for UIDs. I think I used to use a UID test function, and I changed it to this whilst upgrading to DCMTK 3.6.3.

There are other methods that check a given UID for validity, both in DCMTK's dcmdata and dcmsr module.

Worse than that, I think that I am using the UID as the reference value for an image. I suppose there should be an extra layer of indirection, so the UID should go into a single Image node, and that any nodes refering to the image should use the node-based reference.

By-reference relationships and Image/Composite references are two different things in DICOM Structured Reporting. You should read the relevant parts of the DICOM standard in order to better understand the underlying concepts.