Artifacts

In ultrasound imaging, artifacts are important to understand as they can affect the accuracy of diagnosis and treatment.

Here's what you need to know about artifacts:

• Definition and Types: Artifacts are distortions or inaccuracies in the ultrasound image. Common types of artifacts include:
  • Reverberation
  • Shadowing
  • Refraction artifacts
• Importance of Recognition and Correction: It is crucial to recognize and correct these artifacts to ensure accurate diagnosis and treatment.
• Doppler Artifacts: These are a specific type of artifact related to Doppler ultrasound.
  • Cause: Doppler systems transform frequency shifts, usually from moving red blood cells, into colors and spectra. However, low-velocity motion, such as pulsating vessel walls, can create minor Doppler shifts that appear as artifacts.
  • Examples: Common Doppler artifacts include color flash or ghosting.
  • Correction/Mitigation:
    • Wall filters (high-pass filters) are used to help eliminate these low-magnitude shifts, thereby reducing artifacts like color flash or ghosting.
    • It is important to note that simply reducing color Doppler gain will not fix ghosting artifacts because it removes reflections from tissues before it removes reflections from blood cells.