The impact of multiple concurrent factors on the length of the ultrasound pulmonary vertical artifacts as illustrated through the experimental and numerical analysis of simple models

Nowadays, the diagnostic value of the artefactual information provided by lung ultrasound images is widely recognized by physicians. By carefully observing each individual artifact, an expert physician can derive important information on the distribution of the aerated spaces at the pleural level and, consequently, on the nature of the pulmonary disease. In this paper, a specific visual characteristic of the vertical artifacts (their length) is addressed. The impact of the acoustic properties of the interstitial medium, of the imaging parameters, and of the trap geometry on the length of the vertical artifacts is illustrated through experimental results and through the theoretical analysis of a simple model.