Modality Performed Procedure Step (MPPS) is the basic organizational unit of Staged Protocol Exams. It is recommended that a single MPPS instance encompass the entire acquisition of an ultrasound Staged Protocol Exam if possible.

There are no semantics assigned to the use of Series within a Staged Protocol Exam other than the DICOM requirements as to the relationship between Series and Modality Performed Procedure Steps. In particular, all of the following scenarios are possible:

There is no recommendation on the organization of images into Series because clinical events make such recommendations impractical. Figure K.5.5-1 shows a possible sequence of interactions for a protocol performed as a single MPPS.