Background: Hairstyles common in Black communities, braids, locs, twists, (BLTs) can present as artifacts, posing unique diagnostic challenges in interpreting radiological imaging, though limited research has been conducted on the current climate of their interpretation.

Purpose: To present a review of hair artifacts in literature and investigate the comfortability and familiarity of physicians and radiology technicians in assessing braids, twists, and locs (BTLs) as hair artifacts on radiological imaging.

Methods: A web-based survey on the experiences and awareness of BTLs on imaging was distributed to physicians in multiple departments within a nationally respected academic medical center. Survey responses were collected between April 2023 through August 2023 and included demographic information, career length, how often they came across hair artifacts in imaging and a quiz to distinguish pathology from hair artifact on chest x-ray images. Respondents also provided reports of their comfortability and familiarity in identifying BTL’s in plain film images.

Results: 46 surveys were collected from various departments, including Temple Radiology (41.3%), Temple Emergency Medicine (21.7%), Temple Jeanes Campus (26.1%), and St. Lukes Bethlehem Radiology Group (2.2%). Demographic data in Table 1 reveal the Radiologist cohort had an average experience of 9.40 years (SD=12.41), Emergency Medicine cohort had 7.11 years (SD=7.08), and Internist cohort had 0.5 years (SD=0.71). Career length (p < 0.0001) and patient load (p = 0.029) significantly affected self-reported scores (p < 0.0001), with longer careers and larger loads associated with higher score of comfort and familiarity among study participants.

Conclusions: Our findings demonstrated that the number of years in practice and the number of patients per day improved physicians’ and technicians' awareness of how Black hairstyles can affect medical imaging. This study presented a radiological phenomenon lacking in literature and provided valuable insights into the impact of experience on physicians' ability to identify and interpret radiographic images affected by styles that can mimic pathology. The conclusions conveyed a need for early education of BLTs in medical training. Further applications of this research may be directed towards comparing pathology localized in lung apices to hairstyles popular in the Black community, assessing the validity of an educational module in increasing awareness, and expanding on patient populations to explore further associations.