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©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Radiol. May 28, 2015; 7(5): 100-103
Published online May 28, 2015. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v7.i5.100
Published online May 28, 2015. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v7.i5.100
Silver nitrate mimicking a foreign body in the pharyngeal mucosal space
Devon Livingstone, Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 2T9, Canada
Yazeed Alghonaim, Nathan Jowett, Eyal Sela, Alex Mlynarek, Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1A1, Canada
Reza Forghani, Department of Radiology, Sir Mortimer B. Davis Jewish General Hospital and McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3T 1E2, Canada
Author contributions: All authors contributed to this manuscript.
Ethics approval: The study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Jewish General Hospital and informed consent was waived.
Informed consent: The study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Jewish General Hospital and informed consent was waived.
Conflict-of-interest: The authors do not have any conflict of interest to declare pertaining to this manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Reza Forghani, MD, PhD, Associate Chief, Assistant Professor of Radiology, Department of Radiology, Sir Mortimer B. Davis Jewish General Hospital and McGill University, Room C-210.2, 3755 Cote Ste-Catherine Road, Montreal, Quebec H3T 1E2, Canada. rforghani@jgh.mcgill.ca
Telephone: +1-514-3408222
Received: December 24, 2014
Peer-review started: December 26, 2014
First decision: January 8, 2015
Revised: February 9, 2015
Accepted: April 1, 2015
Article in press: April 7, 2015
Published online: May 28, 2015
Peer-review started: December 26, 2014
First decision: January 8, 2015
Revised: February 9, 2015
Accepted: April 1, 2015
Article in press: April 7, 2015
Published online: May 28, 2015
Core Tip
Core tip: This manuscript describes the imaging features of silver nitrate on computed tomography (CT). Silver nitrate is sometimes used as a means of chemical cauterization during bedside head and neck procedures. Silver nitrate has high attenuation on CT and has the potential to mimic a radio-opaque foreign body such as bone. However, it does not have the normal architecture of bone with cortex and marrow on CT. Familiarity with the appearance of silver nitrate on CT and proper communication of its use to the consultant radiologist could help avoid misinterpretation as a foreign body on imaging.