# Slicer DICOM Scalar volume plugin relies on (old) GDCM: why do we not use DCMTK?

**URL:** <https://discourse.slicer.org/t/slicer-dicom-scalar-volume-plugin-relies-on-old-gdcm-why-do-we-not-use-dcmtk/354>\
**Category:** Development\
**Tags:** dicom\
**Created:** [May 21, 2017, 4:30am UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/slicer-dicom-scalar-volume-plugin-relies-on-old-gdcm-why-do-we-not-use-dcmtk/354 "2017-05-21T04:30:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 15

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**Author:** ![thewtex](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/thewtex/32/32_2.png) [@thewtex](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/thewtex)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 6:21pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/slicer-dicom-scalar-volume-plugin-relies-on-old-gdcm-why-do-we-not-use-dcmtk/354/15 "2017-05-30T18:21:01Z")

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> [@jcfr](#):
>
> done before the ITK reader is instantiated
> 
> May this could be added to ITK … in that case a list of readers could be returned. @thewtex Do you think that make sense or should Slicer team proceed as described ?

> [@](#):
>
> I think the issue of improving ITK is an important, but a separate one. I would prefer not to wait for the ITK improvements to be developed, tested and integrated to resolve this specific issue, unless there are really good reasons.

Yes, I think it is a idea to have the DICOM image type code available in ITK without duplication, but it should not be a blocker to move forward. Could an issue please be created here:

[GitHub - KitwareMedical/ITKDICOM: Better support for DICOM in ITK.](https://github.com/KitwareMedical/ITKDICOM)

that points to the appropriate code as a reference?

The overall plan sounds good 👍

Worth noting, @pieper did some digging the other week and found these DICOM datasets from GDCM:

[Grassroots DICOM / Gdcmdata / [a0bba5]](https://sourceforge.net/p/gdcm/gdcmdata/ci/master/tree/)

These are a good resource for regression testing.

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