DICOM PS3.7 2025b - Message Exchange

7.5 DIMSE Services

Because the manner in which operations applied to Composite SOP Instances differ from operations and notifications applied to Normalized SOP Instances, two groups of DIMSE services are defined:

Table 7.5-1. DIMSE Services

Name

Group

Type

C-STORE

DIMSE-C

operation

C-GET

DIMSE-C

operation

C-MOVE

DIMSE-C

operation

C-FIND

DIMSE-C

operation

C-ECHO

DIMSE-C

operation

N-EVENT-REPORT

DIMSE-N

notification

N-GET

DIMSE-N

operation

N-SET

DIMSE-N

operation

N-ACTION

DIMSE-N

operation

N-CREATE

DIMSE-N

operation

N-DELETE

DIMSE-N

operation


Note

Use of the Dialog command, supported in previous versions of this Standard, has been retired.

7.5.1 DIMSE-C Services

The DIMSE-C services allow a DICOM Application Entity to explicitly request an operation by another DICOM Application Entity on Composite SOP Instances. The operations allowed are intended to be effectively compatible with those provided by previous versions of this Standard. DIMSE-C provides only operation services.

7.5.1.1 Operation Services

DIMSE-C provides the following operation services that are all confirmed services and as such a response is expected:

  1. The C-STORE service is invoked by a DIMSE Service User to request the storage of Composite SOP Instance information by a peer DIMSE Service User.

  2. The C-FIND service is invoked by a DIMSE Service User to match a series of Attribute strings against the Attributes of the set of SOP Instances managed by a peer DIMSE Service User. The C-FIND service returns for each match a list of requested Attributes and their values.

  3. The C-GET service is invoked by a DIMSE Service User to fetch the information for one or more Composite SOP Instances from a peer DIMSE Service User, based upon the Attributes supplied by the Invoking DIMSE Service User.

  4. The C-MOVE service is invoked by a DIMSE Service User to move the information for one or more Composite SOP Instances from a peer DIMSE Service User, to a third party DIMSE Service User, based upon the Attributes supplied by the Invoking DIMSE Service User

  5. The C-ECHO service is invoked by a DIMSE Service User to verify end-to-end communications with a peer DIMSE Service User.

Note

  1. The major differences between a C-GET and a C-MOVE operation are that the:

    1. C-STORE sub-operations resulting from a C-GET are performed on the same Association as the C-GET. With a C-MOVE, the resulting C-STORE sub-operations are performed on a separate Association.

    2. C-MOVE operation supports C-STORE sub-operations being performed with an Application Entity that is not the one that initiated the C-MOVE (third party move).

  2. In the case where an Application Entity wishes to request that it receives one or more images for storage, it may use either a C-GET operation or a C-MOVE to itself. It is expected that in most environments the C-MOVE is a simpler solution despite the fact that two Associations are required. The use of the C-GET service may not be widely implemented. It may be implemented in special cases where a system does not support multiple Associations. It was left in this version of the Standard for backward compatibility with previous versions of the Standard.

DICOM PS3.7 2025b - Message Exchange