Abdominal x-ray artifacts (summary)

This is a basic article for medical students and other non-radiologists

Abdominal x-ray review is a key competency for medical students, junior doctors and other allied health professionals. Using ABDO X is a helpful and systematic method for abdominal x-ray review, where X refers to the assessment of external objects and artifacts.

Reference article

This is a summary article; we do not have a more in-depth reference article.

Summary

• introduction
  • numerous different types of foreign bodies and artifacts, both medical and non-medical, can be seen on an abdominal radiograph
• procedure
  • identify any artifacts or foreign bodies on the radiograph
  • correlate the finding with the clinical history provided, or seek further clarification from the referrer to help identify the object
  • try to localise the object to the abdominal wall or within the abdominal cavity
  • clothing or jewelry are commonly identified, these include:
    • navel/nipple piercing
    • metal from clothing, e.g. metal rings from jogging bottoms, beads, sequins
    • metal objects in shirt/trouser pockets: cellphone, car keys, lighter, pen
    • printed shirts
  • many objects are placed iatrogenically, some are the result of misadventure

Related articles