A thorough cleaning of the light guide by the technologist will remove white lines parallel to the plate travel.

• A. True
• B. False
• C. It will remove all artifacts
• D. It will reduce patient dose

Answer: (A)

The effect comes from how the imaging system distributes light from the phosphor to the detector. The light guide carries that light, and if it’s dirty or scratched, it scatters light unevenly. This shows up as white lines that run in the same direction as the plate moves through the system. Cleaning the light guide removes those contaminants, restores smooth light transmission, and the lines disappear from the image. It’s why this cleaning is effective for this specific artifact. Keep in mind, not every artifact is caused by the light guide—some come from motion, processing, or other hardware issues—and cleaning won’t change the patient dose, which depends on exposure factors rather than cleaning.