Abstract
Purpose
To retrospectively review the imaging characteristics of CT artefacts due to air bubbles within the oil cooling system of the X-ray tube housing.
Materials and methods
Air bubbles were introduced into the oil cooling system of the X-ray tube housing during tube replacement in one of the CT scanners in the authors’ institution. All 126 CT brain studies performed in this period were retrospectively reviewed. One hundred and four studies were negative for artefacts. Artefacts were confirmed in 5 and considered probable in 17 studies, respectively. The imaging characteristics of artefacts in these 22 cases were analysed.
Results
All artefacts manifested as ill-defined hypoattenuations in the periventricular/subcortical white matter of bilateral cerebral hemispheres with/without involvement of the internal capsule and basal ganglia. The posterior fossa was also involved in two (40%) confirmed and four (24%) probable studies. A band-like configuration of hypoattenuations on sagittal images was observed in five (100%) confirmed and eight (47%) probable studies.
Conclusion
Air bubble artefacts manifested as hypoattenuations in the periventricular/subcortical white matter of the supratentorial brain. A characteristic band-like configuration was observed in the sagittal reformatted image, which is useful for differentiating it from periventricular small vessel disease.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge Mr Kevin Leung (Department of Imaging and Interventional Radiology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong) for his technical support in line drawing.
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Ethical approval
Ethical approval was waived in the authors’ institution for this retrospective study.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Funding
This study received no grant support and has not been presented in any meeting.
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Wong, S.S.M., Cheung, J.S.W., Lee, T.W.K. et al. CT brain artefact due to air bubbles in the oil cooling system: characteristic band-like configuration on sagittal reformatted image. Jpn J Radiol 36, 90–95 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11604-017-0702-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11604-017-0702-3