CT fogging effect with ischemic cerebral infarcts.

Systematic CT studies on ten patients with persistent ischemic cerebral infarct revealed a constant phenomenon, the fogging effect. The hypodense infarct at the beginning will be isodense, or close to isodense, on the plain CT during the seond of third weeks and at a later stage will be hypodense again. The fogging infarcted area shows homogeneous intensive contrast enhancement. Knowledge of the fogging effect is important for correct interpretation of the CT image and the indication for contrast medium CT. CT without contrast medium may lead to misinterpretation during the second and third weeks after the onset of cerebral infarction.