What is specular reflection in ultrasound?
Specular reflection occurs when the sound waves encounter large smooth surfaces such as bone, which results in the sound waves being reflected back in a relatively uniform direction. The cells of most soft tissue create a more diffuse pattern of reflection to the transducer (Figure 2.6).
What is tissue reflection?
Reflection occurs on border surfaces between tissues with different wave propagation properties (such as fat, muscle, and blood). The degree of reflection depends on the magnitude of this difference. The remaining ultrasound energy may either penetrate deeper or be absorbed by the tissue.
How do you explain specular reflection?
Specular reflection is a type of surface reflectance often described as a mirror-like reflection of light from the surface. In specular reflection, the incident light is reflected into a single outgoing direction.
What is an example of a specular reflection?
Examples of specular reflections include a bathroom mirror, the reflections on a lake, and glare on a pair of eyeglasses. Sometimes specular reflections are useful, like in a bathroom, but sometimes they are not, like the glare on your glasses.
Are red blood cells specular reflectors?
Scattering occurs when a sound wave strikes a structure with a different acoustic impedance to the surrounding tissue and which is smaller than the wavelength of the incident sound wave. Such structures are known as “diffuse reflectors,” with examples being red blood cells and non-smooth surfaces of visceral organs.
What is diffraction in ultrasound?
Sound waves can deflect light, change its frequency and modulate its phase and amplitude. In turn the diffracted light can probe the spatial distribution of acoustic energy in the sound beam and give information on the velocity and attenuation of the sound wave and the elastic properties of the material.
What is the reflected sound waves from air to tissue?
Reflection of a sound wave occurs when the wave passes between two tissues of different acoustic impedances and a fraction of the wave ‘bounces’ back. This forms one of the major principles of ultrasound imaging as the ultrasound probe detects these reflected waves to form the desired image.
What’s the difference between specular and diffuse reflection?
The reflection of light can be roughly categorized into two types of reflection: specular reflection is defined as light reflected from a smooth surface at a definite angle, and diffuse reflection, which is produced by rough surfaces that tend to reflect light in all directions (as illustrated in Figure 1).
Is the diaphragm a specular reflector?
In the image on the right, the diaphragm acts as a specular reflector and appears bright (arrowed) due to the high proportion of sound reflected by this soft tissue air interface. Specular reflection occurs when the sound pulse encounters a large smooth boundary, such as an organ capsule.