What is range ambiguity in ultrasound?

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What is range ambiguity in ultrasound?

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What do you mean by range ambiguity?

Range ambiguity in ultrasound occurs when echoes from different ultrasound pulses arrive at the receiver with overlapping delays, making it difficult to accurately determine the depth or distance of structures in the body. This ambiguity arises because ultrasound pulses can be reflected from multiple interfaces or structures at different depths, resulting in echoes arriving at the transducer with similar delays but from different locations along the path of the ultrasound beam.

Range ambiguity refers to the uncertainty in determining the exact distance to a reflective surface or structure in ultrasound imaging due to overlapping echoes arriving at the transducer. This ambiguity is particularly problematic when the ultrasound beam encounters multiple reflectors along its path, causing echoes with similar delays to be received simultaneously. As a result, the ultrasound system cannot distinguish returning echoes of different depths or structures, leading to ambiguity in range measurement.

What is range ambiguity artifact in abdominal ultrasound?

In abdominal ultrasound, range ambiguity artifact occurs when the ultrasound beam encounters multiple reflectors or structures within the abdomen that are spaced closely together along the beam path. This results in overlapping echoes arriving at the transducer with similar delays, causing ambiguity in determining the exact depth or location of specific structures or tissues within the abdominal cavity. Range ambiguity artifacts can degrade image quality and make it difficult to accurately interpret ultrasound images.

Range ambiguity in pulse repetition frequency (PRF) radar refers to the situation where the radar pulse repetition interval (PRI) is not long enough to avoid overlap between echoes successive pulses from distant targets. This overlap causes ambiguity in determining the correct range to the target because the radar receiver cannot distinguish echoes from different transmitted pulses. Effective range ambiguity mitigation techniques, such as the use of PRI or Pulse linking methods, are used in radar systems to address this problem.

Doppler ambiguity in radar and ultrasound refers to the uncertainty in determining the true velocity of a moving target due to the periodic nature of Doppler frequency changes. Doppler ambiguity occurs when the Doppler shift of a moving target exceeds half the PRF or Doppler sampling rate. This results in ambiguity where the measured Doppler shift could correspond to several possible speeds, making it difficult to accurately determine the true speed of the target without additional information or techniques to resolve the ambiguity.

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