Head scanning with the 16-row mobile CT on the Navy Hospital Ship Peace Ark

Objective To test the image quality, electromagnetic interference and the stability and safety of wireless information transmission on head axial scanning of healthy volunteers by 16-row mobile CT on the Hospital Ship Peace Ark. Methods A total of 96 cases of healthy volunteers were randomly divided into navigation group and berthing group. In the navigation group, 58 cases were scanned in the axial position of the head under the normal navigation condition of the hospital ship, while in the berthing group, 38 cases were scanned in the axial position of the head after the hospital ship returned to the berthing condition of the wharf. The image quality, electromagnetic interference and the stability of wireless information transmission in both groups were compared. Results There was no electromagnetic interference between the 16-row mobile CT and the high-power instruments on the Hospital Ship Peace Ark, and the performance of the image information transmission system was stable. In the condition of sailing and berthing groups of the Navy Hospital Ship Peace Ark, the imaging quality of the bone window was good with the 16-row mobile CT scanning, showing good bone structure of skull, orbit, nasosphenoid sinus and so on. The imaging quality of cephalic windows was good with the 16-row mobile CT scanning, showing clear structures of soft tissues such as eyeball and optic nerve, brain stem, cerebral cortex, sulcus and so on. Although the subjects in 2 groups had a few of linear motion artifacts at the skull base, it showed the incidence rates in the sailing group with 15.52% and the berthing group with 5.26%, there was no significant difference between the two groups (P=0.191), which has no significant effect on clinical diagnosis. Conclusion The 16-row mobile CT was installed on the Hospital Ship Peace Ark for head scanning. The 16-row mobile CT was of good imaging quality, reliable performance and convenient to use in this trial. There was no electromagnetic interference between the 16-row mobile CT and the Hospital Ship Peace Ark, and the wireless information transmission worked stably in the trial. Key words: 16-row mobile CT; Head scan imaging; Navy Hospital Ship Peace Ark; Electromagnetic interference