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Multiple Choice

The term echogenicity is defined as:

Echogenicity is about how bright a tissue looks on the ultrasound image, which reflects the amplitude of the echoes it returns. It’s a relative, comparative property—radiologists judge one structure by comparing its brightness to adjacent tissues. For example, fatty liver becomes more echogenic (brighter) than normal liver because it reflects more ultrasound. In contrast, tissues that return fewer echoes appear darker (hypoechoic). This concept is different from tissue stiffness (elastography), the speed of sound in tissue (an acoustic property used in the machine), or the color shown on Doppler imaging.

Echogenicity is about how bright a tissue looks on the ultrasound image, which reflects the amplitude of the echoes it returns. It’s a relative, comparative property—radiologists judge one structure by comparing its brightness to adjacent tissues. For example, fatty liver becomes more echogenic (brighter) than normal liver because it reflects more ultrasound. In contrast, tissues that return fewer echoes appear darker (hypoechoic). This concept is different from tissue stiffness (elastography), the speed of sound in tissue (an acoustic property used in the machine), or the color shown on Doppler imaging.