Value Representation

OW Other Word

Category
binary-stream
Max Length
2^32-2 bytes
Fixed Length
No
Source
PS3.5 §6.2

Definition

A string of 16-bit words where the encoding of the contents is specified by the negotiated Transfer Syntax. OW is a VR that requires byte swapping within each word when changing byte ordering.

Attributes using OW

31 DICOM attributes declare this VR. Showing the first 24.

Working with OW in integration code

VR-aware transformations are where most DICOM integration bugs hide — truncating a PN's 5-component structure, misaligning OB padding, or dropping leading zeros on IS. Saga IT builds production DICOM pipelines that respect VR semantics across Mirth Connect transformers, DIMSE gateways, and cloud DICOM services.