DCMTK

The return value of calcElementLength() is defined as Uint32, which limits the maximum value to 2^32-1 (4,294,967,295). However, sequences and items with undefined length as well as DICOM datasets and fileformats can be larger than this. Therefore, it should be checked whether a size_t (or Uint64) could be returned instead of Uint32. This also applies to the getLength() method. Special attention should be paid where the 32-bit limit is still needed (e.g. for the length field of DICOM data elements).

Use cases where the current limitation might be an issue are Whole Slide Microscopic Images (WSI) and huge MPEG videos (where the pixel item containing the video stream exactly fits into the 32-bit length field, but the total size of the DICOM dataset exceeds this limit).