Value Representation (VR) Definition Needed for DICOM Tag.

Value Representation VR Definition Needed for DICOM Tag See Long Description Every DICOM tag has an assigned "Value Representation" or VR, per the DICOM standard, which defines what kind of data is permitted in the tag. For example, the DICOM tag "Pulse Sequence Name" (0019,109C) has a VR as shown in the GE DICOM Conformance statement of "LO". Another example is "Raw data type" (0019,10D0) which has a VR listed in the same DICOM Conformance statement as "SH". But what exactly do these VRs mean? What is "LO" and "SH", and more importantly, what are their definitions? The GE DICOM Conformance statements tell you exactly what VR applies to each tag, but there is no definition of the VR. By reading the GE DICOM Conformance statement specific to the product you are interested in, you would never know that "LO" stands for "Long" and is limited to 64 characters, or that "SH" stands for "Short" and is limited to 16 characters. These VRs may not contain certain illegal characters, and there are other requirements. If the data used in these tags violates these requirements, then DICOM transfers will fail. These are only two examples of the many types of VRs used in the DICOM standard and thus on GE products. At one site, the customer is claiming that we are sending data in the wrong format in one of the DICOM tags of images to PACS. We need specific information for all DICOM Value Representations in order to effectively troubleshoot DICOM-related problems. This information is not included in the GE DICOM Conformance statements.