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Twinkling artifact on color Doppler ultrasound: an advantage or a pitfall?

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Abstract

The twinkling artifact (TA) or color comet-tail artifact is characterized by a rapidly changing mixture of red and blue color Doppler signals. Even though many diseases and clinical conditions have been shown to produce this artifact, its source is not clearly understood yet. The TA may provide additional information to gray-scale ultrasound findings in several clinical situations. However, there may be pitfalls to keep in mind. We must first be aware of the TA to benefit from the advantages and avoid the pitfalls. In this review, we aim to give practicing radiologists an overview of the mechanisms and clinical applications of the TA by illustrating sample cases we have encountered.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Ufuk University School of Medicine, Dr. Ridvan Ege Training and Research Hospital, Mevlana Bulvarı (Konya Yolu) No: 86-88, 06520, Balgat, Ankara, Turkey

    Ebru Ozan, Gokce Kaan Atac & Sadi Gundogdu

Authors
  1. Ebru Ozan
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  2. Gokce Kaan Atac
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  3. Sadi Gundogdu
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Correspondence to Ebru Ozan.

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The authors declare that they have nothing to disclose and they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical standards

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1964 and later versions. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

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Additional informed consent was obtained from all patients for which identifying information is included in this article.

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Ozan, E., Atac, G.K. & Gundogdu, S. Twinkling artifact on color Doppler ultrasound: an advantage or a pitfall?. J Med Ultrasonics 43, 361–371 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10396-016-0715-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10396-016-0715-z

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