# Blurry Image When Uploading DICOM files into Slicer

**URL:** <https://discourse.slicer.org/t/blurry-image-when-uploading-dicom-files-into-slicer/18172>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [June 16, 2021, 8:22pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/blurry-image-when-uploading-dicom-files-into-slicer/18172 "2021-06-16T20:22:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![joannecallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e36b37/32.png) [@joannecallow](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/joannecallow)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2021, 8:22pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/blurry-image-when-uploading-dicom-files-into-slicer/18172/1 "2021-06-16T20:22:03Z")

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Operating system: macOS Catalina 10.15.1  
Slicer version: 4.11  
Expected behavior: Images upload clear  
Actual behavior: Images upload blurry and two errors showed up (when looking at the slices individually they are clear, but when uploading all together it looks like this.

 ![Screen Shot 2021-06-16 at 12.26.17 PM](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/slicer/original/3X/f/5/f580b8e0f471e53307936cbf5ef816e47b6b8b9a.png)  
 ![Screen Shot 2021-06-16 at 12.25.27 PM](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/slicer/original/3X/4/6/468929a4c484de40ff9f3944a1278335829afcf5.png)  
 ![Screen Shot 2021-06-16 at 12.25.41 PM](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/slicer/original/3X/8/b/8b85bc8118563fcc486569d96a382e583fbb5b92.png)

I tried enabling acquisition geometry regularization, but it didn’t change anything.

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**Author:** ![lassoan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/lassoan/32/13_2.png) [@lassoan](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/lassoan)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2021, 8:30pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/blurry-image-when-uploading-dicom-files-into-slicer/18172/2 "2021-06-16T20:30:57Z")

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Most probably you have 3 series, each is high-resolution only along one image axis. See this topic for more details:

> [@Combining volumes - what am I missing?](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/combining-volumes-what-am-i-missing/2941/2):
>
> In general, these multiple low-resolution acquisitions are not well suited for any 3D processing, so the best would be to acquire proper 3D volume, with as isotropic spacing (cubic voxel shape) as possible. You may try to find toolkits that can create an isotropic super-resolution image from multiple low-resolution sweeps, but this is a difficult image reconstruction problem, so there are no standard solutions. Have a look at this post [Import volume by projections](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/import-volume-by-projections/2871/6) for info on a toolkit that mig…

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**Author:** ![joannecallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e36b37/32.png) [@joannecallow](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/joannecallow)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2021, 8:59pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/blurry-image-when-uploading-dicom-files-into-slicer/18172/3 "2021-06-16T20:59:22Z")

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I went onto the View Controllers Module and found that there are many series options and when I switch to a different series the image appears clear. I am not sure what I am doing though or what these series are. Could you try to explain what is happening?

 ![Screen Shot 2021-06-16 at 12.39.56 PM](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/slicer/original/3X/8/8/8883aabe133e6df733ab8973bc5b07478a27bcb8.png)

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**Author:** ![lassoan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/lassoan/32/13_2.png) [@lassoan](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/lassoan)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2021, 9:08pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/blurry-image-when-uploading-dicom-files-into-slicer/18172/4 "2021-06-16T21:08:13Z")

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In an imaging study, usually many series are acquired and even more can be created by reconstructing the same acquired data in many different ways. Use those sequences that work the best for you.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![joannecallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e36b37/32.png) [@joannecallow](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/joannecallow)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 10:03pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/blurry-image-when-uploading-dicom-files-into-slicer/18172/5 "2021-06-17T22:03:01Z")

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Thanks Andras. I have a follow up question. Would I be able to make 3D measurements using three different series of images (one for each orientation)? Or do I need to somehow align the series first? If so, what is the best way to do this?

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**Author:** ![lassoan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/lassoan/32/13_2.png) [@lassoan](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/lassoan)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 10:44pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/blurry-image-when-uploading-dicom-files-into-slicer/18172/6 "2021-06-17T22:44:19Z")

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First you need to verify that there is no significant displacement between these images. If they are well aligned (which is probably the case) then you can make measurements on any combination of them. You just need to be aware that accuracy of your measurements may be limited to the slice spacing (which may be a magnitude larger then pixel spacing within the slice).