Artifact (medical imaging)

Artifacts are misrepresentations of tissue structures seen in medical images produced by modalities such as Ultrasonography, X-ray Computed Tomography, and Magnetic Resonance Imaging. These artifacts are caused by a variety of mechanisms, such as:

• The underlying physics of the energy-tissue interaction (ie: Ultrasound-air)
• Data acquisition errors (mostly from patient motion)
• A reconstruction algorithm's inability to represent the anatomy.

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Physicians learn to recognize these artifacts to avoid confusing them with real pathology.

See also

• Artifact (observational)