Jewelry artifact

Last revised by Ashesh Ishwarlal Ranchod ◉ on 12 Jul 2023

Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data

Citation:

Bickle I, Ranchod A, Alhusseiny K, et al. Jewelry artifact. Reference article, Radiopaedia.org (Accessed on 23 Mar 2025) https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-33380

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-33380

Permalink:

https://radiopaedia.org/articles/33380?embed_domain=airvcc.com

rID:

33380

Article created:

10 Jan 2015, Ian Bickle ◉

Disclosures:

At the time the article was created Ian Bickle had no recorded disclosures.

View Ian Bickle's current disclosures

Last revised:

12 Jul 2023, Ashesh Ishwarlal Ranchod ◉

Disclosures:

At the time the article was last revised Ashesh Ishwarlal Ranchod had no financial relationships to ineligible companies to disclose.

View Ashesh Ishwarlal Ranchod's current disclosures

Revisions:

29 times, by 9 contributors - see full revision history and disclosures

Sections:

Imaging Technology

Tags:

stub, reference needed

Synonyms:

Jewelry on radiographs
Jewellery on x-rays
Jewellery artefacts
Jewellery artifacts
Body piercing artifact
Body piercing artifacts

It is common to see jewelry artifacts on imaging examinations, most commonly plain radiographs, although also on other modalities, where they can produce unhelpful artifacts that may obscure important structures and preclude confident diagnostic evaluation ¹.

These include:

body piercings in many different anatomical locations
- most commonly earrings
- nose studs/rings
- nipple rings
- cleavage rings
- umbilical rings
- genital rings
- also tongue, lips, eyebrows, chin, etc.
necklaces, bracelets, anklets, chains etc.
finger and - much more rarely - toe rings

It is therefore incumbent upon the patient to remove jewelry before an imaging examination if it is likely to create diagnostic confusion. Usually, the radiographer will request that a patient removes all jewelry before imaging is performed.