What is an artifact on an echocardiogram?

Artifacts are common during echocardiography. An artifact is information contained in a displayed image that leads to an incorrect depiction of the true anatomy.

How do you reduce reverberation artifacts?

Reverberation artifacts can be improved by changing the angle of insonation so that reverberation between strong parallel reflectors cannot occur.

What causes artifacts in ultrasound?

US artifacts arise secondary to errors inherent to the ultrasound beam characteristics, the presence of multiple echo paths, velocity errors, and attenuation errors.

What does reverberation artifact look like?

Reverberation artifacts appear as a series of equally spaced lines. They are produced by an ultrasound beam repeatedly bouncing back and forth between two highly reflective interfaces or between the transducer and a strong reflector.

What does artifact mean in medical terms?

In medical imaging, artifacts are misrepresentations of tissue structures produced by imaging techniques such as ultrasound, X-ray, CT scan, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Physicians typically learn to recognize some of these artifacts to avoid mistaking them for actual pathology.

What is dirty shadowing in ultrasound?

Clean and dirty shadowing are common phenomena in ultrasound (US) imaging. Clean shadowing is thought to be produced by sound-absorbing materials (ie, stones), and dirty shadowing is thought to be produced by sound-reflecting materials (ie, abdominal gas), but these properties are not consistent.

What is edge shadowing in ultrasound?

Edge shadowing (defocusing) is a refractive artifact that occurs at the edge of a large curved boundary with a different speed of sound than that of the surrounding tissues.

What causes edge shadowing?

(B) Edge shadowing occurs at the edges of rounded tissue structures caused by reflection away from the beam at the boundary edge and refraction of the beam within the structure. These interactions result in an edge shadow, an example of which is shown for a thyroid nodule on the right.

What is an artifact in the lung?

Conclusion. Lung atelectasis, consolidation, and/or pleural effusion may create a mirror image, intracardiac artifact in mechanically ventilated patients. The latter was termed the ‘cardiac-mass lung’ artifact, to emphasize the important diagnostic role of both echocardiography and lung echography in these patients.

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