Acoustic enhancement

Last revised by Kajanan Nithiyananthan on 7 Jun 2024

Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data

Citation:

Morovati P, Nithiyananthan K, Elfeky M, et al. Acoustic enhancement. Reference article, Radiopaedia.org (Accessed on 12 Jun 2024) https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-40009

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-40009

Permalink:

https://radiopaedia.org/articles/40009

rID:

40009

Article created:

2 Oct 2015, Peyman Morovati

Disclosures:

At the time the article was created Peyman Morovati had no recorded disclosures.

View Peyman Morovati's current disclosures

Last revised:

7 Jun 2024, Kajanan Nithiyananthan

Disclosures:

At the time the article was last revised Kajanan Nithiyananthan had no financial relationships to ineligible companies to disclose.

View Kajanan Nithiyananthan's current disclosures

Revisions:

9 times, by 9 contributors - see full revision history and disclosures

Sections:

Imaging Technology

Tags:

refs, cases

Synonyms:

Enhanced through transmission
Posterior enhancement
Posterior acoustic enhancement

Acoustic enhancement also called posterior enhancement or enhanced through transmission, refers to the increased echoes deep to structures that transmit sound exceptionally well ¹.

This is characteristic of fluid-filled structures such as cysts, the urinary bladder and the gallbladder. For a 1 MHz beam, the attenuation coefficient of water is approximately 2000 times less than soft tissue ², therefore fluid attenuates sound much less than the surrounding tissue. The time gain compensation (TGC) overcompensates through the fluid-filled structure causing deeper tissues to be brighter. Simply it is seen as increased echogenicity (whiteness) posterior to the cystic area. The presence of acoustic enhancement aids in the identification of cystic masses but some solid masses, especially lymphoma, may also show acoustic enhancement posteriorly.