SETTING UP DCMQRSCP AND DCMQRTI Before attempting to setup dcmqrscp or dcmqrti you should read the documentation for these programs (dcmqrscp and dcmqrti man pages) as well as the documentation on configuration (dcmqrcnf.txt). Step 1: Create a directory where the image databases will be located. e.g. mkdir /home/dicom/db Step 2: Create subdirectories for each individual image database storage areas to be managed by dcmqrscp. Each database storage area corresponds to an Application Entity (AE) title of dcmqrscp. e.g. cd /home/dicom/db mkdir COMMON ACME_STORE UNITED_STORE Step 3: Copy the example configuration file (dcmqrscp.cfg) to the main image database directory. e.g. cp <prefix>/etc/dcmqrscp.cfg /home/dicom/db Step 4: Edit your copy of the configuration file. You may have used different image database directory and subdirectory names than in the examples above. If so, edit the AETable (near the bottom) of your dcmqrscp.cfg file and change the first and second columns to reflect the names you have chosen (AE title and directory paths). Step 5: Determine the hostnames, TCP/IP port numbers, and AE titles of the DICOM applications you will be communicating with. You need to edit your copy of dcmqrscp.cfg to include these in the HostTable section. Step 6: Edit the VendorTable to give a string title to symbolic names declared in the HostTable. Step 7: If you wish to restrict access to image databases to particular remote applications (peers) you need to edit the last column of the AETable to contain a symbolic name defined in the HostTable. If no access restrictions are desired you can use the constant name ANY. Step 8 (optional): If you wish to initialize a database storage area to reference a set of external images, you can use the dcmqridx utility. This step would normally only be performed on a read-only database storage area since sending images to such a storage area (AE title) might cause your original images to be deleted if the quota specifications (4th column of the AETable in dcmqrscp.cfg) are exceeded. e.g. dbregimg -v /home/dicom/db/COMMON /home/dicom/images/rsna95/*/*/* would register the "rsna95" images in the COMMON storage area (which is defined as read-only in dcmqrscp.cfg). The "rsna95" images are available via ftp from the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, St. Louis, USA : ftp://wuerlim.wustl.edu/pub/dicom/images/version3/RSNA95 Step 9: You can now start the dcmqrscp application. e.g. dcmqrscp -v -c /home/dicom/db/dcmqrscp.cfg 5678 will start dcmqrscp in verbose mode, using the configuration file you created and edited in steps 3 to 8, and listening on TCP/IP port 5678. The dcmqrscp application will wait for DICOM association requests and will never exit. Step 10: You can try sending a DICOM image to dcmqrscp from one of the remote machines which may access dcmqrscp's storage areas. e.g. storescu -v --aetitle ACME1 --call ACME_STORE dbhost 5678 ctimage.dcm will start the storescu application in verbose mode, giving it the DICOM AE title ACME1, and requesting that it transmit the DICOM image ctimage.dcm to the ACME_STORE storage area of dcmqrscp which is running on the host dbhost (attached to port 5678, as in step 9). The AE title which storescu uses (via the -t option) and the host on which it is running must match the values known to dcmqrscp in its dcmqrscp.cfg file. See the storescu man page for more information on the storescu application. Step 11: On the remote machine used in step 10 you can start a DICOM Storage SCP which is capable of receiving images. e.g. storescp -v 3456 will start storescp in verbose mode listening on port 3456 for incoming associations. See the storescp man page for more information on the storescp application. Step 12: You can try using the dcmqrti application to examine the database storage areas and send images to the storescp application started in step 11. dcmqrti should be run on the same host as dcmqrscp. e.g. dcmqrti -c /home/dicom/db/dcmqrscp.cfg acmeCTcompany will start the dcmqrti application using the configuration file you created and edited in steps 3 to 8, with the capability to communicate to the applications defined by the symbolic name acmeCTcompany. You can use the "database" command to select a database, the "title" command to select a remote application, "echo" to send an echo message, and "send study" to transmit a complete study. See the dcmqrti man page for more information on the commands accepted by dcmqrti.