# Anatomical orientation MHD

**URL:** https://discourse.itk.org/t/anatomical-orientation-mhd/2231
**Category:** Beginner Questions
**Created:** [September 6, 2019, 1:36pm UTC](https://discourse.itk.org/t/anatomical-orientation-mhd/2231 "2019-09-06T13:36:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![SaskiaCamps](https://discourse.itk.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/e47774/32.png) [@SaskiaCamps](https://discourse.itk.org/u/SaskiaCamps)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2019, 1:36pm UTC](https://discourse.itk.org/t/anatomical-orientation-mhd/2231/1 "2019-09-06T13:36:02Z")

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Dear all,

I am currently saving frames of an image buffer in MHD file format using a similar approach as described in [https://itk.org/ITK/help/tutorials.html](https://itk.org/ITK/help/tutorials.html) - Example V. The image data is saved correctly and the images look fine. However, my MHD file header contains: AnatomicalOrientation = ??. For my application, the anatomical orientation is not relevant, however, I would like to replace the ?? with RAI to avoid problems in the future.

Among other things I tried:

```
const unsigned int Dimension = 2;
typedef itk::ImportImageFilter<unsigned char, Dimension> BufferImport;
BufferImport::Pointer frame = BufferImport::New();

typedef itk::Image<unsigned char> ImageType;
ImageType::DirectionType direction;
direction.SetIdentity();
frame->SetDirection(direction);

```

Unfortunately, this did not solve the issue. Does someone know how to fix this?

Thanks a lot for your help in advance!

Saskia

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### Author: ![dzenanz](https://discourse.itk.org/user_avatar/discourse.itk.org/dzenanz/32/1093_2.png) [@dzenanz](https://discourse.itk.org/u/dzenanz)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2019, 2:47pm UTC](https://discourse.itk.org/t/anatomical-orientation-mhd/2231/2 "2019-09-06T14:47:32Z")

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I don’t think you can use RAI for 2D images. Perhaps RA? But it does not matter. Take a look at this [discussion](https://github.com/InsightSoftwareConsortium/ITK/issues/1017).

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### Author: ![SaskiaCamps](https://discourse.itk.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/e47774/32.png) [@SaskiaCamps](https://discourse.itk.org/u/SaskiaCamps)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2019, 11:35am UTC](https://discourse.itk.org/t/anatomical-orientation-mhd/2231/3 "2019-09-09T11:35:26Z")

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Thanks for your fast reply. I had a look and I also believe it does not matter. So, I will just leave the question marks.

Saskia