Artifact (diagnostics)
In diagnostics, an artefact is an apparent, but actually unintentionally artificially created causal relationship , for example through errors in data collection, evaluation, documentation or interpretation.
Artifacts are products or phenomena resulting from human or technical influence. They are scientifically worthless because they say nothing about the actual object of investigation, but merely represent a source of diagnostic error.
Examples
In histology , artifacts are features in a microscopic specimen that can be traced back to the preparation method, i.e. that were only created by freezing, drying, fixing, staining or cutting and therefore naturally did not exist.
In diagnostic imaging, this is understood to be technically determined structures that are superimposed on the image, such as ring artifacts or hardening artifacts .
In anatomy or pathology, the "lips" of the ileocecal valve , which appear only after death, but do not appear in the living individual.
In forensics, the traces left at the scene of the crime (mostly accidentally) in the time between the crime and the securing of evidence, which complicate the work of the forensic investigation or falsify its results.
Also in forensics, contamination of examination equipment e.g. B. the phantom of Heilbronn .
In statistics , one knows artifacts like the Simpson paradox or the Will-Rogers phenomenon .
See also
literature
- Torsten Rohlfing: Simulated ultrasound imaging and artefacts occurring in medical diagnostics. Thesis. Karlsruhe 1997. (pdf, accessed November 8, 2014; 2.2 MB)