click below
click below
Normal Size Small Size show me how
ultrasound-artifacts
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| clean shadowing | strongly echogenic surface results in a dark acoustic shadow distal to the probe; US is reflected and absorbed. colonic fecal material, bone, cystic calculi |
| dirty shadowing, reverberation | occurs because of reflection of US between a strong reflector and the probe; results in additional reflectors that are not real. equally spaced and get weaker. |
| comet tail | type of reverberation artifact; origiantes between two anatomic reflecting surfaces with a large difference in acoustic impedence. series of closely spaced, discrete echoes that weaken with increasing depth |
| ring down artifact | similar to comet tail; but no discrete echoes, extends to the bottom of the image without fading. caused by reflection of bubbles in the tissue |
| mirror image artifact | duplicate structure placed deep to a highly reflective surface. Distal Accoustic Enhancement: increased echogenicity of tissue deep to a fluid-filled structure. caused by decreased US attentuation |
| slice thickness artifact | the beam partially contacts the surface or wall of an organ, giving the false impression that there is sludge in the organ |
| what are side/grating lobes? | beams that propagate from a single element (side lobes) or several element (grating lobes), in directions different from the primary beam |
| edge shadowing | occurs as the US beam enters a circular region of higher propogation speed, is refracted, and is then refracted again as it leaves the region |
| edge shadowing 2 | weak echoes due to spreading of the beam and are misplaced deep to the circular structure. |
| urinary bladder pseudolesion | you can usually tell it's an artifact by moving the probe and evaluating from a different location, and also because the bladder looks otherwise full and normal |
| refraction artifact | results in deviation of the beam and an increase in distance traveled before it is reflected by the cartilage-bone interface. this results in an apparent increase in cartilage thickness |
| propagation speed error | occurs when the assumed value for propagation speed is incorrect. structures are displaced axially |
| doppler aliasing | flow velocity exceeds the computers ability to correctly measure it; spectral - wring side of baseline color flow - wrong color |
| twinkling artifact | observed at strongly reflecting scattering surfaces with rough or irregular surfaces. quickly fluctuating mixture of doppler signals with an associated characteristic spectrum of noise. add'l sonographic feature of urinary stones. |
| anisotropism | echo amplitude is highly dependent on angle of insonation; highest amplitude echoes occur when us beam is 90 to the reflector |
| electronic noise artifact | should know it when you see it |
| loss of contact | dark shadow from top of image |