Series Configuration
The Series Configuration section of the hanging protocol defines how individual series within a study are matched and displayed. It consists of two parts: Series Matching Criteria, which determines which series to display, and Series Settings, which determines how to display them.
Series Sets and Series Matching Criteria
When a study is opened, the viewing protocol is applied. The screen is laid out first, then series are loaded into the view boxes in the order defined by the series rules.
The Series Order screen is divided into two areas:
- Series Set table — contains one or more sets of series rules. Each Series Set entry holds multiple Series Matching Rules, all of which are evaluated together as a group.
- Series Matching Criteria table — contains the individual rules within the selected Series Set.
An advantage of using Series Sets is that a single protocol can support multiple scanner types. When a protocol is applied, each Series Set is evaluated to find the closest match for the current study. The set with the highest match score is used to display the study. Any series that do not match a rule are displayed at the end, using the settings defined in the Display Preferences screen.
Creating a Series Set
- Click the New button under the Series Set table to create a new series set (named Default by default).
- Click the name in the table to rename it (up to 255 characters).
- Click a blank rule in the Series Matching Criteria table and define the rule parameters.
- Click Save to save the rule.
- To add more rules, click the New button below the Series Matching Criteria table.
Note: Only users with Admin privileges can change the order of Series Sets or edit Series Matching Criteria, though any user can view them.
Series Matching Criteria fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Modality | Should normally match the study-level modality. Only change this for mixed-modality studies. |
| Body Part | Should normally match the study-level body part. Only change this for mixed-modality studies. |
| Series Description | Text match against the Series Description DICOM tag. Supports the % wildcard (e.g. %T1% matches any description containing "T1"). |
| Plane Type | Dropdown. Leave as Unknown if not filtering by plane. |
| Laterality | Dropdown. Leave as % if not filtering by laterality. |
| Administered Contrast | Dropdown. Leave as % if not filtering by contrast. |
| Image Type 3 / Image Type 4 | DICOM tags with additional description fields for complex modalities (CT, MR). Available options are configured via Settings > Descriptions > Image Type. |
Series Settings
Once a series is matched by a rule, the Series Settings determine how it is displayed. These settings are defined per rule and appear in the lower section of the Series Order screen.
Checkboxes
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Display scout thumbnail | Displays a small scout thumbnail in the bottom-right corner of each viewport for that series. |
| Use series matching rule only once | Prevents the same rule from matching more than one series. Once a rule matches a series, it will not be applied to any subsequent series. |
| Match remaining Series | Applies this rule's settings (e.g. Window Presets, Presentation State Sharing) to any series that did not match any other rule. |
| Display modality presentation states across multiple stacks | Splits multiple presentation states into separate stacks. For example, a CT series with two presentation states would produce three stacks: the original CT, the first presentation state, and the second. |
| Exclude previously matched series | Applies this rule only to series that have not already been matched by an earlier rule in the set. |
Series Display
The Series Display section uses the View drop-down to define how the series is rendered:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| 2D | Default. Used for standard studies that are not MPR. |
| MPR | Used when displaying a standard MPR series. |
| Slab MPR | Creates an MPR viewport with a Slab view. When selected, additional rendering options become available: MIP (Maximum Intensity Projection), MinIP (Minimum Intensity Projection), AveIP (Average Intensity Projection), and VR (Volume Rendering). The Slab Thickness option controls the thickness of the slabs. |
| Fusion | Available when the series contains PET and CT data. Selecting Fusion activates the Series Order to Fuse With drop-down, where the PET series to fuse with the CT series is chosen. |
Note: If the Series Matching Criteria was just created, it may take a few moments for the Series Order to Fuse With drop-down to populate.