Learning to Read a Brain CT

So let's just start

It's a CAT scan right. I'll help you through. it's a CAT scan and we're looking what do you know what these black things are here.

The ventricles?

Yep, they're the ventricles and they contain cerebrospinal fluid and that's why it's it's they're dark as opposed to the the brain tissue which is going to be darker or grayer and there's this white thing right here. Do you know what that is?

I don't know what that is now.

That's a man-made object. Okay. That's the shunt catheter. All right. So the shunt catheter is a tubing that is placed and you can see it as we go up the head here. The tract of the shunt catheter comes up from the surface of the skull. So when this man was a child, he had to have this shunt placed because he had fluid buildup on the brain. He had water on the brain. So we drilled a hole or someone drilled a hole and placed this catheter. This catheter is impregnated with barium. So that's why it's white.

Remember I said on CAT, if you haven't been here before, you have the things that are white on CAT skans are contrast. Barium is a contrast that's impregnated in this catheter, bone and blood, acute blood. So here's the catheter as it enters the head. Okay. There's a small hole. I don't know if we can see the hole, or you can sort of see the irregularity in the skull there. And then the catheter comes in here, and it goes through the brain tissue, and the tip of it should ideally sit in the region of the foramen of Monro.

Okay. Thank you.