A repository system may manage Studies, Series, and Instances that are marked in the database as removed from operational use. The associated SOP Instances may have been physically deleted, or they may be left in storage, commonly denoted as 'soft deleted', 'deprecated' or 'hidden' (see Section C.6.4.1.2 “Removed From Operational Use” in PS3.4). The SCU may desire to receive records of these entities in the inventory, especially to determine which entities were removed since the last inventory (see example in Section YYYY.7.10.1).

The Repository Query SOP Class defines Removed from Operational Use (0008,0405) and Reason for Removal Code Sequence (0008,0406) as Key Attributes. Studies, Series, or Instances might be marked removed from operational use by local user actions, or by actions associated with the processing of specific Key Object Selection Document SOP Instances, e.g., in accordance with [IHE RAD TF-1] Image Object Change Management Integration Profile (IOCM).