Refraction artifact can manifest as which of the following?

• A. Lateral displacement of a reflector
• B. Axial displacement of a reflector
• C. Multiple images of a single reflector
• D. Increased brightness of a reflector

Answer: (A)

Refraction artifact arises when the ultrasound beam bends as it crosses a boundary between tissues with different propagation speeds, especially at an oblique angle. Because the system assumes the signal travels straight down and back, the echo from a reflector is mapped to a position that’s shifted to the side. That causes the reflector to appear laterally displaced rather than in its true location. The depth information remains governed by travel time along the assumed path, so you don’t typically see an axial shift or a duplicate image from this effect, and brightness changes are not a defining feature of refraction. Other artifacts, like depth distortion or mirror/reverberation images, illustrate those alternative phenomena.