Aurora, Illinois - When image artifacts occur, it is important to remember that there are a wide variety of factors that can cause an artifact - it is not necessarily always the tube. Quite often our technical support team learns of situations in which a field service engineer immediately replaces the CT tube, when in reality, the artifact was caused by another part of the CT system. To help avoid this common mistake, our team developed a list of troubleshooting tips to help determine the root cause of an artifact.

When do you see the artifact?

• Is it occurring in scout, axial, or helical?
• Is it seen on small or large focal spots?
• Is it changing with slice thicknesses or pitch?
• Is it dependent on rotation speed?

Have you checked ...

• if the gantry is balanced?
• if the tube is noisy?
• that the tube alignments are within spec on a cold tube?
• your Data Acquisition System (DAS)?

For a more complete list and additional information on troubleshooting image artifacts, please view the CT Image Artifacts Technical Webinar at dunlee.com.

To stay informed on the latest technical and product information, sign up for Dunlee updates or follow Dunlee on Facebook.