What is Rayleigh Scattering?
A Quick Lesson to End the Week
Rayleigh Scattering
Rayleigh scattering is a phenomenon that occurs when ultrasound waves interact with particles or structures smaller than the beam’s wavelength, such as red blood cells. When ultrasound waves encounter these structures they scatter in various directions and increase the overall intensity of the ultrasound signal received by the transducer.
Rayleigh scattering can affect image quality by causing a reduction in signal strength and creating noise. In echocardiography, this is is commonly referred to as spontaneous echo contrast (SEC) and indicates stagnant flow. The above case is a great example displaying this concept in a patient with complete heart block and the SEC can be seen in the left ventricular cavity.
Overall, understanding Rayleigh scattering in ultrasound is important for image optimization and may indicate an underlying pathology. Physics is not always at the top of our priority list and we hope you learned something new here!
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