DicomSeriesReader::LoadDicomSeries() loads an image from disk. It also scans for quite some DICOM tags and provides them as mitk::Properties. In addition it reports the scan findings (e.g. is the series tilted, how to interpret spacings?).
In use cases where pixel data is already present and only the properties are of interest, it would be simple to make the function skip the actual image loading step and provide only the properties to an image which is provided as a parameter.
A simple unit test will verify that the property lists are actually identic with and without loadig pixel data.