DICOM header: Acquisition time, study time, series time, content time

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You can find the DICOM standard here.

The participant comes to the scanner

  1. patient loaded and study starts: this is the StudyTime (0008,0030).
  2. Every time a series starts (T1 scan, T2 scan, fMRI run) all subsequent images of the series use the same series time (0008,0031)
  3. In theory, acquisition time (0008,0032) refers to the start of acquisition of 2D image, e.g. for a EPI fMRI dataset this would refer to the start of acquisition for the slice. Be aware that not all manufacturers record this with precision, and for some systems it may not even reveal actual slice order. You need to work with your vendor to understand what this value means.
  4. When a new DICOM file is created (for fMRI, this is after reconstruction) a Content Time stamp is generated.
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