Presentation
Screening abdominal ultrasound
Patient Data
Age: 80 years
Gender: Female
From the case:
Twinkling artifact caused by kidney stone
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- Multiple benign anechoic, fluid-filled cysts in both kidneys.
- ~10 mm reflective lesion in the lower third of the left kidney likely calculus. It is showing posterior acoustic shadowing, and speckled twinkling artifact.
From the case:
Twinkling artifact caused by kidney stone
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Relevant slices of a recent prior CT exam shown to correlate the US findings. Note that in the middle third of the right kidney a smaller calculus is visible, which could not be discerned with US.
Case Discussion
The terms color comet tail artifact (band-like large posterior color artifact) and twinkling (subtle color jitter immediately under a reflective structure) are often used interchangeably, even though these are distinct phenomena and not necessarily both present, depending on imaging parameters and the type of the reflective structure investigated.
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