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A multipath artifact in medical ultrasound occurs when sound waves travel along indirect paths, bouncing off multiple structures before returning to the transducer. This creates spurious echoes that are incorrectly positioned on the image, often appearing deeper than the true anatomy. These artifacts can obscure real pathology or mimic additional structures, making accurate diagnosis challenging…

In medical ultrasound, a refraction shadow is an artifact caused by the bending of the ultrasound beam as it passes through an interface between two tissues with different speeds of sound. This bending or refraction redirects sound waves away from structures behind the interface, creating a hypoechoic or anechoic (dark) area on the image. It…

In medical ultrasound, range ambiguity is an artifact occurring when echoes from deep structures arrive after the next pulse has been transmitted. The ultrasound system incorrectly places these delayed echoes closer to the transducer, causing superficial structures to appear deeper or false structures to appear. This misregistration of echoes is critical to understand for accurate…

A ghosting artifact in medical ultrasound appears as a duplicated, weaker image of a real structure, shifted along the ultrasound beam path. This artifact often arises from multiple reflections of sound waves between strong, highly reflective interfaces, such as air-tissue or bone-tissue boundaries. It can obscure true pathology or mimic additional structures, leading to misdiagnosis…

Motion artifacts in medical ultrasound refer to unwanted distortions or blurring on an image caused by patient movement, transducer movement, or physiological motion (e.g., breathing, cardiac activity). These artifacts can significantly degrade image quality, obscuring anatomical details and potentially leading to misdiagnosis. Recognizing and minimizing motion artifacts is crucial for accurate interpretation and optimal diagnostic…

The mirror vessel artifact is a common ultrasound phenomenon where a duplicate, false image of a blood vessel or other highly reflective structure appears on the opposite side of a strong reflector, such as the diaphragm or pleura. This occurs when sound waves encounter the strong reflector, are bounced back and forth between the reflector…

The color flash artifact in medical ultrasound appears as a burst of color, typically red and blue, within a fluid-filled structure or region of interest, without actual blood flow. This common artifact is generated by sudden tissue or transducer movement, causing rapid changes in the received Doppler signals, which the ultrasound system misinterprets as blood…

In medical ultrasound, a blooming artifact appears as an exaggerated, bright area on the image, often seen with highly reflective structures like calcifications or strong echoes. This occurs when the ultrasound system overestimates the size of these structures due to excessive gain settings or strong signals saturating the display. It can obscure underlying anatomy and…

Aliasing in Doppler ultrasound is a common artifact where blood flow velocity is underestimated or displayed in the wrong direction, appearing as a "wrap-around" of the Doppler spectrum. This occurs when the Nyquist limit, which is half the pulse repetition frequency, is exceeded by high-velocity blood flow. It's a crucial concept for sonographers to understand…