ABSTRACT
Generally, the reverberation artifacts caused by the abdominal wall do not cause confusion. If there is a fluid collection deep to the abdominal wall, such as the bladder, there should be no difficulty appreciating the artifactual nature of the echoes. There can be real echoes from sludge in the dependent portion of fluid collections. Echoes in the superficial (nondependent) aspect of the bladder are easily appreciated as artifacts. On the other hand, reverberation artifacts can be superimposed over the superficial portion of the liver. This gives the appearance of increased echogenicity. Although the TGC may be manipulated to balance the echogenicity in the near and the far portions of the liver, the near echo may not represent true interfaces in the liver. When watching during real-time scanning, the true echoes can be seen to move with respiration, whereas the artifactual echoes appear like a haze through which the liver is being viewed. These artifacts, however, can easily obscure superficial metastases and superficial cysts (Fig. 3).
