Brilliance 64 slice or 256 slice ct scanner

The brain CT scans were made with a Philips Brilliance 64-slice or 256-slice CT scanner (Philips Healthcare, Best, The Netherlands). The brain from the patient who donated her body to the Department of Anatomy was removed from the skull before scanning. The brains from the patients from the Department of Pathology were scanned surrounded by the skull. Non-contrasted thin slice reconstructions (0.8–1.0 mm) were analysed for hippocampal calcifications in different reconstructions, axial, coronal, and sagittal in the brain window setting (Center: 40 Hounsfield Units, Width: 80 Hounsfield Units) using the Philips IntelliSpace Portal 7.0 (Philips Healthcare, Best, The Netherlands). Calcifications were bilaterally scored on severity as absent, mild (one dot), moderate (multiple dots) or severe (confluent) (Fig 1) as described first by Kockelkoren et al. [8 (link)]. Calcifications on the CT scans are seen as a group of white voxels with a density similar to bone (Fig 1). The hippocampi were scored by an experienced observer. His agreement in comparison with other observers was previously investigated (kappa 0.80) [8 (link)]. The observer was blinded to the histological results.

Brain CT examinations were acquired on a Philips Brilliance 64-slice or 256-slice CT scanner (Philips Healthcare, Best, The Netherlands). Patients were scanned from the skull base to the vertex. The non-contrast enhanced thin slice reconstructions (0.625–1 mm) were rated blinded and individually by two experienced radiologists with 14 and 16 years of experience in reading (brain) CT scans. Images were analyzed in axial, coronal and sagittal plane in the brain window setting (Center: 40, Width: 100) using the Philips IntelliSpace Portal 7.0 (Philips Healthcare, Best, The Netherlands). Calcifications were scored bilaterally in the hippocampus as absent, mild (one dot), moderate (multiple dots) or severe (confluent) (Fig 1). Calcifications are seen in the brain CT window setting as white (clustered) dense configurations comparable to bone and had to be clearly located in the hippocampus. In case of disagreement between both readers, a consensus reading determined the final score.