Letter to the EditorMR susceptibility artifact due to occupational cause: an unusual case
Introduction
In MRI studies, ferromagnetic materials in imaging area significantly change the images and cause signal void and/or increased signal areas. This effect depends on the shape and amount of ferromagnetic materials. The reason for this artifact is alteration of magnetic field homogeneity by ferromagnetic materials [1].
This is a kind of susceptibility artifact, and metallic materials that cause this artifact can be found in metal workers as an occupational situation.
Section snippets
Case report
A 17-year-old man was admitted to our neurology clinic with headache. His medical history revealed that these symptoms were pronounced for several months. MRI examination of the patient was asked by the neurology clinic.
During the evaluation of MR images, artifacts causing a wavy distortion of the images were seen in all sequences (especially flair images) in the scalp (Fig. 1). When the PA skull radiograph of the patient in the PACS system of the hospital was inspected, a very thin radiopacity
Discussion
Magnetic susceptibility artifacts are the result of microscopic gradients of the magnetic field strength at the interfaces of regions of different magnetic susceptibility. Susceptibility describes the property of matter to become magnetized when exposed to a magnetic field. Paramagnetic materials (e.g., platinum, titanium and gadolinium) have positive susceptibility and augment the external field. The results are bright and dark areas with spatial distortion of the surrounding anatomy. The
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Present address: Üniversite mahallesi, Çınar sokak, No: 4/8, Elazig, Turkey