This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

Warning: computer geek terminology ahead

I have my mri scans from last year and this year in digital form. Last year they gave me a cd containing a Siemens MagicView windows application (for free even). Inserting it in the computer, it knows the patient has a certain number of image sequences. You can pick which sequence and then move through them or view them in movie mode.

This year they gave me another cd, but it has just the raw dicom files - no application. I was able to view them by making an empty folder on my computer and copying all last year's files into it. Then I copied all this year's files into the same folder, overwriting any that had the same name. Finally I burned the contents of that folder onto a blank cd. Voila! It works. When I insert the new cd, the application runs and has this year's scans listed.

The application seems to allow comparison of images side by side when it is loaded in stretched mode. Does anyone know how I can combine the indexes it uses to have it list both years? I see a non-text file called "dicomdir" that appears to have embedded within ascii strings corresponding to the images, my name, the doctor's name, etc. I was hoping it would be straight ascii so I could try using an editor to combine both sets. Both sets of images are burned on the cd already, and I can use the import feature to load them one at a time, but it's tedious. It would be nice to get the index fixed to include both, and be able to compare this year's images with last years.

Many thanks in advance for any pointers or assistance. I'm still waiting for the interpretation from the doctor.

Can't help you with MagicView. My mri reports came on a cdrom with a different software program than yours (can't remember the name off hand). This program has a "compare" feature so I was able to flip through a sequence of scans from 2 different sets of files (2 different years), viewing them side by side.

I suggest you call the lab where you had the mri and ask a tech (who probably burned the cd to begin with)

carolsue