Reading CT scans with eFilmLT.exe on Vista

A bit off-topic but I thought I’d share. A friend of mine had this CT scan on CD and was having trouble reading it on his PC (sometimes it worked, sometimes not). And simply copying it to his hard disk enabled it unreadable. So I offered to debug why, and lo and behold, a quick Google search shows that lots of other people have reported similar problems (e.g., see here).

It seems that this proprietary reader (eFilmLT.exe), made by Merge Software, looks for a valid binary “DICOMDIR” file that points to the metadata for the particular scan images on the CD (e.g., the patient name, date taken, image filenames, etc.). Why this isn’t a human-readable format like XML, I have no idea.

Anyway, if you have a set of images that you can’t read:

  1. copy them to your hard disk
  2. download the attached zipfile, which contains all the relevant reader files (e.g. ,eFilmLT.exe, associated DLLs, “Profiles” directory, and configuration files). All these are (I think) independent of the particular CT scan on a given CD. I have *not* included “DICOMDIR” here by design.
  3. Overwrite your files with the contents of this zipfile.

Then try to launch the new eFilmLT.exe. It should pick up your DICOMDIR and now you can read your CT scans. This has been tested on Vista, probably XP works as well. Good luck.

Download: efilmbinaries.zip

120 comments

  3. Thanks so much for posting this – completely solved my problem viewing the files! I appreciate being able to find this link online!

  4. THank you! your files resolved the problem I was having as well. I can now review my MRI information. Now, if only there was a way for me to download the knowledge about what the images are supposed to be telling me….

    THANK YOU!

  6. Just unzip the files in the zipfile and drag them into the eFilm directory. Then relaunch eFilm.exe and it should work.

  7. Thanks for your help, very much appreciated!!!

    Maybe the hospital should give you a disk that works in the first place though, don’t know how they can charge for something that doesn’t work????

  8. THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH!!!! I THOUGHT I WOULD HAVE TO VMWARE INTO XP PRO FOREVER TO BE ABLE TO VIEW MY OWN SCANS!

  10. Is your zip file still a good file? I am not able to open or get anything out of it.
    Thanks,
    Allen

  11. OMG thank you so much for this… I spent about 6 hours trying to get this stupid cd from my doctor to open on my computer…. what would we do without people like you… ??????

  12. Thank you so much for posting this! You are a lifesaver! Now if I can only figure out how to read these images . . .

  13. Thanks. This helped me too, but I’m trying to do 3D volume rendering and it says there is no memory available. How to make this work?

  17. Thank you very much!! This solved my problem too. Now I’m able to view my pics

  18. I have tried everything and I still can’t read the images from the disc or the hard drive.

  19. Thanks, I did exactly as you said and was able to view both my shoulder images and knee images. now, like others, if I could only read CT SCANS everything would be perfect. still its very interesting to view but prior to this point, I got nothing.

  22. I leave a message in the dutch language that it worked:

    Deze methode werkt perfect bij CD’s van een CT scan gemaakt in het AMC (Amsterdams Medisch Centrum):

    (translation / vertaling):

    Kopieer de CD naar een map op de harde schijf en verwijder daarna de CD uit de computer.

    Download het zip bestand en unzip de bestanden van het zipbestand in dezelfde map op de harde schijf waarin je de CD hebt gekopieerd (sommige bestanden zullen worden overschreven, maar niet JOUW foto’s!, dus wees niet bang – bovendien heb je ze nog op de CD.)

    Start in die map op de harde schijf efilmlt.exe

    en zie daar…: jouw foto’s.

  25. You absolutely ROCK! I was going crazy for an hour trying to look at xrays w/ Vista…all kinds of programs wanted to sell me things…you actually solved the problem!

    Worked Perfectl!! You’re the best! Thanks

  26. You ROCK! this worked perfectly! I’ve been struggling for an hour to look at xrays on vista…nothing worked till this…thank you!

  27. Rolf

    Excellent – that’s great. Works like a treat! Thank you for taking the time to sort this out.

  28. Worked perfect. Did not have to copy my files from CD to hard disk. Once zip file had been extracted, I inserted my MRI disk and the home screen populated. Those images are so good. Thank you SO much

  30. Thanks! Now the program works, but there is no patient information coming up in the start page, so I can’t pick any file to open, any idea? The CD worked perfectly on XP, but not on Vista…..

  32. I have downloaded the zip file and copy the CD to my Vista hrad drive. May I ask what is the next step to overwrite or unzip the file?

    Thanks

  38. Many thanks!!! our normal vet uses a different system for our dogs minivue which works great, kinda disappointed in this software making itr virtually unreadable for many people at home….

  44. Thanks.
    This worked on Windows 7 Professional 64 bit.
    Had to run as administrator and install the MS XML 4.0 parser.

  45. It worked! Thank you so much for your help! Was able to look at MRI of my head! Amazing stuff!

  47. Your file and suggestions were dead-on! I’ve been on the phone with my sister for over an hour and was trying to help her with her own efilmlt program error. Found your information, downloaded it (hesitantly because I am VERY cautious about downloading ANYTHING), and viola!….It WORKS!

    THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU !!!

  49. I was banging my head trying to get the efilm lite viewer working on a Vista machine. Apparently, your efilmlt.exe is a different version than the one they are sending out now. OLDER, go figure!! KUDOS! Worked like a charm!! Thank you for posting!!

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