What is the meaning of dicominfo's FrameIncrementPointer 1x2 array for this RT Dose file?

DICOM PS3.3 2016b Page 440 states that the Frame Increment Pointer "Contains the Data Element Tag of the attribute that is used as the frame increment in Multi-frame pixel data. See Section C.7.6.6.1.2 for further explanation."

This section states that "The frames within a Multi-frame Image shall be conveyed as a logical sequence. The information that determines the sequential order of the frames shall be identified by the Data Element Tag or tags conveyed by the Frame Increment Pointer (0028,0009). Each specific Image IOD that supports the Multi-frame Module specializes the Frame Increment Pointer (0028,0009) to identify the Attributes that may be used as sequences."

My problem is that in my case I have FrameIncrementPointer: [12292 12]. Checking the Registry of DICOM Data Elements in DICOM PS3.6 2016c - Data Dictionary (I am using the 117259999 2016c PDF files), it appears 12292 is not the Group Number for one of these Tags.

So it appears to me that the DICOM Standard says the Frame Increment Pointer identifies at least one Tag, whereas my FrameIncrementPointer -- applying dicominfo to an RT Dose file -- does not.

Have I misunderstood something? How do I use the information [12292 12] to determine the sequential order of the 129 frames of this RT Dose file?

Answer 1

[Daniel Bridges]

I think I have found the answer: MATLAB appears to be reporting the hexadecimal values '3004' and 'C' as decimal. ( Bing provides a hexadecimal conversion tool.)

Compare Page 611 of the PS3.3 2016b "part03.pdf", i.e. the section C.8.8.3.2 Grid Frame Offset Vector.

So in this case the Frame Increment Pointer is identifying the Grid Frame Offset Vector, but is reporting the tags in decimal rather than the hexadecimal used by the DICOM Standard. That is my surmise.

[Daniel Bridges]

I don't yet understand why dicomdisp reports

 0001172    0   (0028,0009) AT    4 bytes - FrameIncrementPointer  *Binary*

if the output is decimal, not binary. (I.e. Bing's hexadecimal conversion tool reports that hexadecimal C = decimal 12 = binary 1110.) I suppose the data itself is being stored as binary ...