# get info such as patient orientation, timing from images

**URL:** <https://discourse.itk.org/t/get-info-such-as-patient-orientation-timing-from-images/1354>\
**Category:** Community\
**Tags:** dicom\
**Created:** [October 15, 2018, 12:58pm UTC](https://discourse.itk.org/t/get-info-such-as-patient-orientation-timing-from-images/1354 "2018-10-15T12:58:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![KrisThielemans](https://discourse.itk.org/user_avatar/discourse.itk.org/kristhielemans/32/1633_2.png) [@KrisThielemans](https://discourse.itk.org/u/KrisThielemans)\
**Post date:** [October 15, 2018, 12:58pm UTC](https://discourse.itk.org/t/get-info-such-as-patient-orientation-timing-from-images/1354/1 "2018-10-15T12:58:45Z")

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Hi all

Is there a way to get patient orientation (i.e., HFS etc) and things like the equivalent of DICOM’s Actual Frame Duration etc from ITK image objects?

I suspect this sits in the MetaData, but that’d imply I’d have to know how to get it for every file format that supports this info (although most formats don’t I guess).

If this cannot be done, can someone point me to an example how to get it for a DICOM image (or even tell me about another ITK-supported file format that does encode this info)?

Thanks!

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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:** [October 15, 2018, 1:09pm UTC](https://discourse.itk.org/t/get-info-such-as-patient-orientation-timing-from-images/1354/2 "2018-10-15T13:09:38Z")

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This [example](https://github.com/InsightSoftwareConsortium/ITK/blob/master/Examples/IO/DicomImageReadPrintTags.cxx) shows how to access tags from a DICOM image. You can also read the corresponding [section](https://itk.org/ITKSoftwareGuide/html/Book2/ITKSoftwareGuide-Book2ch1.html#x7-240001.12) in the software guide.

Some other formats (MetaIO, NRRD, MINC) can have metadata, but that is not so common.