Dark line artifacts can be caused by too much kVp in an exposure.

• A. True
• B. False
• C. Not sure
• D. It depends on the system

Answer: (B)

Dark line artifacts are not driven by the exposure energy of the beam. Changing the kVp affects penetration and image contrast, and can influence noise and scatter, but it does not create straight dark lines across the image. Those line-like patterns point to hardware or processing issues in the imaging chain. Examples include a defective detector element or readout channel in DR systems, scanner or plate reader artifacts in CR imaging, or data transfer glitches that manifest as lines. They tend to appear regardless of the kVp setting because they originate from how the image is captured or processed, not from the beam’s energy. In practice, if you see persistent dark lines, it’s a sign to check the detector/reader electronics, calibration, or processing workflow (and consider grid alignment or cassette/transfer issues if grid lines are involved).