Comet tail artifacts in gray scale ultrasound and colour doppler ultrasound in various anatomical regions and their clinical significance

Artifacts are very common in ultrasound diagnostics. An artifact refers to any occurrence on the image that does not accurately represent the actual anatomical structures. Radiologists and doctors using ultrasound diagnostics should be able to recognize artifacts that have clinical significance in order to properly interpret ultrasound images. There are numerous examples in everyday clinical practice, which will be presented in this paper, where knowledge of the “comet tail” artifact in greyscale ultrasound and the “twinkling” artifact when using color Doppler can assist in clinical dilemmas.