Alternative oblique head CT scanning technique reduces bone artifact and improves interpretability of brainstem anatomy

Brainstem pathology due to infections, infarcts and tumors are common in developing countries, but neuroimaging technology in these resource-poor settings is often limited to single slice, and occasionally spiral, CT. Unlike multislice CT and MRI, single slice and spiral CT are compromised by bone artifacts in the posterior fossa due to the dense petrous bones, often making imaging of the brainstem non-diagnostic. With appropriate head positioning, the petrous ridges can be avoided with 40° sagittal oblique scans parallel to either petrous ridge. We describe an alternative sagittal oblique scanning technique that significantly reduces brainstem CT artifacts thereby improving clarity of anatomy. With Institutional Ethical approval, 13 adult patients were enrolled (5 males; 39%). All patients had routine axial brain CT and sagittal oblique scans with no lesions found. Images were read by 2 readers who gave a score for amount of artefact and clarity of structures in the posterior fossa. The mean artifact score was higher for routine axial images compared to sagittal oblique (2.92 vs. 1.23; P<0.0001). The mean anatomical certainty scores for the brainstem were significantly better in the sagittal oblique views compared to routine axial (1.23 vs. 2.77; P<0.0001). No difference was found between the two techniques with respect to the fourth ventricle or the cerebellum (axial vs. sag oblique: 1.15 vs. 1.27; P=0.37). When using single slice CT, the sagittal oblique scanning technique is valuable in improving clarity of anatomy in the brainstem if axial images are non-diagnostic due to bone artifacts.