Which artifact is commonly seen as bright echoes near the baseline in post-stenotic turbulence?

Which artifact is commonly seen as bright echoes near the baseline in post-stenotic turbulence?

• A. Bruit
• B. Mirror imaging
• C. Aliasing
• D. Spectral broadening

Answer: (A)

Post-stenotic turbulence produces many small, disordered Doppler shifts that cluster near zero velocity on the spectral display, creating bright, noisy echoes close to the baseline. This specific bright near-baseline clutter is called bruit. It signals turbulent flow downstream of a narrowing rather than representing true high-velocity signals. This differs from other artifacts: mirror imaging would show a ghost spectrum on the opposite side of the baseline, aliasing would wrap high-velocity signals around the Nyquist limit, and spectral broadening describes a wide range of velocities within the spectrum without the characteristic near-baseline noise.

Post-stenotic turbulence produces many small, disordered Doppler shifts that cluster near zero velocity on the spectral display, creating bright, noisy echoes close to the baseline. This specific bright near-baseline clutter is called bruit. It signals turbulent flow downstream of a narrowing rather than representing true high-velocity signals.

This differs from other artifacts: mirror imaging would show a ghost spectrum on the opposite side of the baseline, aliasing would wrap high-velocity signals around the Nyquist limit, and spectral broadening describes a wide range of velocities within the spectrum without the characteristic near-baseline noise.