Appearance of common ultrasound artifacts in conventional vs. spatial compound imaging.

Abdominal sonographic artifacts produced by conventional and spatial compound sonographic imaging using linear and curved array transducers were compared. Spatial compound imaging produced multiple diverging ring-down artifacts from a single source with increasing width and decreasing intensity. Overlap of the diverging artifacts was conspicuous when the focal point was in the far field. Increased width and reduced intensity of acoustic shadowing artifacts was observed with spatial compound imaging. Edge shadowing was eliminated, or reduced. Diverging edge shadowing from the source of the artifact with reduced intensity was detected when the focal point was in the near field. There was no apparent difference of the acoustic enhancement artifact with spatial compound imaging. There was absence or reduction of clutter seen in the urinary bladder when using spatial compound imaging. The appearance of artifacts with spatial compound imaging is slightly different from those with conventional ultrasound imaging.