Effect of spineboard and headblocks on the image quality of head CT scans.
Trauma patients at risk for, or suspected of, spinal injury are frequently transported to hospital using full spinal immobilisation. At the emergency department, immobilisation is often maintained until radiological work-up is completed. In this study, we examined how these devices for spinal stabilization influence visual image quality. Image quality was judged for both patient CT scans and phantom CT scans. CT scans of 217 patients were assessed retrospectively by two radiologists for visual scoring of image quality, scoring both quantity and impact of artifacts caused by the immobilization devices. For the phantom CT scans, eight set-ups were made, using a vacuum mattress without headblocks and a rigid and a soft-layered spineboard without headblocks, with standard soft-foam headblocks, or with new design headblocks. Overall, artifacts were found in 67 % of CT scans of patients on immobilization devices, which hampered diagnosis in 10 % of the cases. In the phantom CT scans, artifacts were present in all set-ups with one or more devices present and were seen in 20 % of all scan slices. The presence of headblocks resulted in more artifacts in both the patient CT scans and the phantom CT scans. Considerable effort should therefore be made to adjust the design of the immobilization devices and to remove the headblocks before CT scans are made.
Network Acute Care Limburg, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands. baukjehemmes@hotmail.com.
Baukje
B
Hemmes
Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Cécile R L P N
CR
Jeukens
Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Aliaa
A
Al-Haidari
Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Paul A M
PA
Hofman
Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Ed S
ES
Vd Linden
Network Acute Care Limburg, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands.|Department of Surgery, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Peter R G
PR
Brink
Network Acute Care Limburg, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands.|Department of Surgery, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands.|NUTRIM, School of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Martijn
M
Poeze
D000328:Adult; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007103:Immobilization / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013124:Spinal Injuries / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000592:standards*; D014187:Transportation of Patients
CT scan; Headblocks; Image quality; Spineboard; Vacuum mattress