Evaluation of network attached storage technique in PACS clinical application

Objective Information technologies were pushing the development of PACS clinical applications.Network attached storage technique is good at its performance,with successful application in IT industries.This article is to evaluate the application of Network Attached Storage technique in PACS.Methods Using a NAS as long-term archiving system storage unit,on which 15.5 terabytes available for images;both PACS long-term archiving system and NAS unit are configured to be connected at 2 Gbps through Ethernet switches via CIFS.Through single DICOM association,100 studies of four different modalities are retrieved from PACS long-term archiving system.Through multiple DICOM association,five group of which,images are retrieved from PACS long-term archiving system.With start time,end time,image count and study size logged,calculate the velocity of retrieving a study or an image.Make a comparison of single and multiple DICOM associations.Results Centricity Enterprise Archive manages to send one copy of digital radiography study to hosts within 1-3 seconds and manages to send one copy of CT or MRI study at the rate of 30-40 images per seconds throughout single DICOM association.In case of multiply DICOM associations,the rate does not differ much from that of increasing the number of associations.Conclusion NAS-based PACS long-term archive has a fast and steady performance.It could be a perfect match of the PACS clinical applications.