Ultrasound in obstetrics & gynecology : the official journal of the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology
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Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol · Sep 2000
Sources and impact of artifacts on clinical three-dimensional ultrasound imaging.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate, identify and discuss artifacts and their sources arising in three-dimensional ultrasound (3D US) in clinical practice in order to increase the awareness of clinicians and sonographers with respect to common 3D US artifacts and to use this increased awareness to avoid or reduce the occurrence of misdiagnosis in 3D US studies. Patient 3D US data were acquired using several different scanners and reviewed interactively on the scanner and graphics workstations. Artifacts were catalogued according to artifact origin. ⋯ Editing artifacts potentially removed important structures. Three-dimensional ultrasound is prone to the same types of artifacts encountered in 2D US imaging plus others unique to volume acquisition and visualization. The consequences of these diagnostically significant artifacts include mimicking of abnormal development, masses, or missing structures thus requiring careful study before reaching a diagnosis.