CT artifacts

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CT artifacts are common and can occur for various reasons. Knowledge of these artifacts is important because they can mimic pathology (e.g. partial volume artifact) or can degrade image quality to non-diagnostic levels.

~~Artifacts are defined as any systemic discrepency between the CT numbers of the reconstructed image and the true attenuation coefficient of the object being evaluated.~~

CT artifacts can be classified according to the underlying cause of the artifact.

Patient-based artifacts

Physics-based artifacts

beam hardening
- cupping artifact
- streak and dark bands
- metal artifact/high-density foreign material artifact
partial volume averaging
quantum mottle (noise)
photon starvation
aliasing in CT
truncation artifact

Hardware-based artifacts

ring artifact
tube arcing
out of field artifact
air bubble artifact
Helical and multichannel artifact
- windmill artifact
- cone beam effect
- multiplanar reconstruction (MPR) artifact
  - zebra artifact
  - stair step artifact

-<p><strong>CT artifacts</strong> are common and can occur for various reasons. Knowledge of these <a href="/articles/radiological-image-artifact">artifacts</a> is important because they can mimic pathology (e.g. partial volume artifact) or can degrade image quality to non-diagnostic levels.</p><p><strong>Artifacts are defined as any systemic discrepency between the CT numbers of the reconstructed image and the true attenuation coefficient of the object being evaluated.</strong></p><p>CT artifacts can be classified according to the underlying cause of the artifact. </p><h5>Patient-based artifacts</h5><ul>
+<p><strong>CT artifacts</strong> are common and can occur for various reasons. Knowledge of these <a href="/articles/radiological-image-artifact">artifacts</a> is important because they can mimic pathology (e.g. partial volume artifact) or can degrade image quality to non-diagnostic levels.</p><p>CT artifacts can be classified according to the underlying cause of the artifact. </p><h5>Patient-based artifacts</h5><ul>

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