Edelmen's Sonography Principles and Instrumentation (SPI) Practice Exam

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• Which notation correctly matches mega?
• If an ultrasound beam strikes a boundary at normal incidence and both media have the same propagation speed, which process cannot occur?
• The units of attenuation are ___ : this is a ___ scale
• Which frequency range is typical for Doppler measurements?
• The rayl is the unit of which property?
• The more pixels per inch:
• Which of the following is NOT used to describe a single ultrasound pulse?
• Coded excitation is used to improve which aspect of image quality?
• Dynamic range in ultrasound describes which of the following?
• What is the effect of increasing the pulse repetition frequency (PRF) on Doppler measurements?
• The region immediately beyond the near field is the far zone.
• Which technique improves the signal-to-noise ratio in ultrasound imaging?
• A transducer ________ one form of ________ into another.
• Which of the following is not a beam steering technique for a mechanical scan head?
• What is the most typical Doppler shift measured clinically?
• Which of the following statements about Doppler frequency shift is true?
• Which cavitation form is associated with shock waves and extreme energy release (violent collapse)?
• In ultrasound beam zones, which zone describes the far-field region after the focal point where the beam diverges?
• How many bits are needed to represent 32 gray shades?
• All of the following are true of normal cavitation EXCEPT which statement?
• The ultrasound parameter most closely associated with cavitation risk is
• If the frequency is doubled, what happens to the period?
• What is another name for longitudinal resolution?
• If the frequency of a sound wave is doubled while traveling in the same medium, how is the wavelength affected?
• Which tissue type has propagation speed closest to soft tissue?
• A single-element transducer is focused by whom?
• Rayleigh scattering in ultrasound occurs when scatterers are much smaller than the wavelength.
• Doppler Shifts always occur if the sound source and receiver are in motion.
• Which of the following conditions yields the highest mechanical index?
• How is range ambiguity artifact eliminated?
• Which of the following is proportional to the square of the amplitude?
• Which option best describes a sound beam in ultrasound?
• If 3 MHz sound has a 2 dB attenuation in 1 cm of tissue, what is the attenuation of 6 MHz sound in 0.5 cm of the same tissue?
• For depth calibration accuracy in a test phantom, which properties are most relevant?
• The following statement is true or false: A mirror image artifact can appear alongside true anatomy.
• To what factor does a 60 dB increase in output correspond, in terms of times?
• Which statement best describes a difference between annular and linear phased array transducers?
• In the analog-to-digital converter path, which component stores the image data?
• Propagation speed increases most when which combination of material properties occurs?
• Which clinical modality has the lowest output intensity?
• The grainy image texture due to interference of scattered waves is called:
• An ultrasound system is set to 0db and is transmitting at full intensity. What is the output power when the system is transmitting at 50% of full intensity?
• Decibels express the ratio of output quantities on a logarithmic scale. Which option reflects this concept?
• Which statement about spatial pulse length is true?
• What is the primary function of the scan converter in an ultrasound system?
• At an air–tissue interface, most of the ultrasound energy is reflected.
• Which parameter controls image frame rate in ultrasound systems?
• If the frequency is tripled, what happens to the wavelength?
• If the manufacturer increases the number of scan lines per frame, which may have to be decreased?
• From a safety standpoint, which method is best?
• Which Doppler modality is highly sensitive to low-velocity flow but does not provide velocity information?
• The Fresnel is the:
• If the transducer diameter increases, the lateral resolution at its smallest dimension is:
• Cavitation is most likely to occur under which condition?
• Which device measures the acoustic output of a transducer?
• Which medium provides the fastest ultrasound propagation speed?
• In soft tissue, distance traveled is equal to which factor times the round-trip time?
• What is the effect of spatial compounding on image quality?
• If the frequency is decreased, the numerical value of the radial resolution will be:
• Which component in an ultrasound unit contains the memory bank?
• What is displayed on the x-axis of an M-mode image?
• Refraction occurs only if there is which combination?
• To represent 16 shades of grey with minimum bits, how many bits are needed?
• Axial resolution is improved by which change?
• Which ultrasound safety index gauges heating potential?
• How many centimeters are in 60 millimeters?
• The dynamic range is the ratio of the smallest to the largest ________ that a system can process without distortion.
• What is the trade-off of using higher frequency transducers?
• Which of the following is determined by the source and the medium?
• Axial resolution is affected by focusing.
• What is the effect of using a higher frequency on attenuation and imaging depth?
• ______ is the time to complete one cycle.
• If output power increases by a factor of 4, how many decibels is this?
• With good images on the display but not on the printer, one should:
• ______ is the distance covered by one cycle.
• Which change would increase the mechanical index?
• Under typical practice, a patient may revoke consent to treatment
• In ultrasound safety, what does ALARA stand for in practice?
• How many decibels are related to a 90% decrease in imaging power?
• What determines the frequency of a sound beam from a pulsed transducer?
• Which factor most directly determines axial resolution?
• Which statement is true regarding frequency and penetration?
• How many data bits are needed to represent 46 gray shades?
• If the frame rate rises and the lines per frame remain the same, the imaging depth must do what?
• A quality assurance program:
• How does speed change when bulk modulus increases?
• Which transducer is best suited for imaging superficial structures?
• Rectification and smoothing are components of which of the following?
• Which action is not typically performed by the sonographer?
• If the power of a sound wave is increased by a factor of 8, how many decibels is this?
• A hydrophone is used to measure which property?
• What are the three attenuation components in ultrasound?
• Which of the following best describes the mechanistic approach to the study of bioeffects?
• Coded excitation primarily improves imaging by what mechanism?
• Which parameter controls the depth of imaging on the display?
• If the frequency is doubled in the same medium, how does the propagation speed change?
• Which of the following is ultrasonic and least useful in diagnostic imaging?
• Partial volume artifact occurs when echoes from adjacent structures are blended within a single voxel.
• Refraction requires oblique incidence and which condition?
• In a system with a digital scan converter but an analog input signal, which component is required to convert the signal to digital form?
• If the lines per frame is increased while the imaging depth remains unchanged, what happens to the frame rate?
• Among B-mode, gray-scale imaging, continuous-wave Doppler, and pulsed Doppler, which has the greatest output intensity?
• At an air–tissue interface, what fraction of the incident ultrasound energy is reflected?
• Destructive interference occurs when waves are
• In depth calibration testing with a phantom, depth accuracy is most influenced by which property pair?
• Which resolution improves most with focusing?
• Impedance is the product of ________and ________.
• Which pair best describes the factors that determine the speed of sound in a medium?
• DICOM is a standard for what in medical imaging?
• The production of a voltage from deformation is called?
• Which term describes the distance covered by one cycle?
• Which control is used to compensate for signal loss with depth to keep brightness uniform?
• What is the primary purpose of compression in ultrasound imaging?
• All of the following are true EXCEPT:
• Which term describes the redirection of an ultrasound beam in many directions at a rough boundary?
• Which artifact is NOT a cause of filling in an anechoic structure such as a cyst?
• Which action is not typically part of the sonographer's duties?
• The speed of sound in soft tissue is closest to which value?
• If the bulk modulus increases while density remains constant, the speed of sound will be
• Which factor has the greatest influence on the pulse repetition period?
• If a system is not displaying clear images in the far field, which component is most likely at fault?
• What is the fraction of time that a transducer is transmitting?
• In which biological tissue will sound travel the fastest?
• Assuming a constant frequency, what happens if the diameter of an unfocused circular transducer is increased?
• Which of the following best describes the empirical approach to the study of bioeffects?
• If the intensity is increased by 3 dB, it:
• Lateral resolution is improved by which factors?
• What unit is commonly used to express an intensity ratio in ultrasound?
• PACS primarily provides which function in medical imaging workflows?
• True or False: With normal incidence, the angle is 180 degrees.
• Which parameter is determined primarily by the medium through which ultrasound propagates?
• Enhancement, multipath, and side lobes result in which of the following?
• If the number of scan lines per frame is increased, what happens to frame rate?
• If an acoustic variable ranges from 55 to 105, what is its amplitude?
• Which option best completes the statement: A transducer ________ one form of ________ into another.
• Pulse repetition frequency (PRF) is measured in which units?
• Which of the following is not typically a transducer component?
• Which statement best describes pulse repetition frequency (PRF)?
• In a QA study using a tissue-equivalent phantom, adjusting a brightness control changes reflector brightness from fully bright to barely visible. Which system parameter are you evaluating?
• In Doppler ultrasound, which incident angle results in no frequency shift?
• The digital scan converter has a number of pixels assigned to each bit.
• Arrange the following media from fastest to slowest propagation speed in a typical medium:
• Circumferences may be measured in which unit?
• Rayleigh scattering occurs when scatterers are smaller than wavelength.
• The duty factor for CW ultrasound is
• What information does Doppler shift provide?
• Which term describes a transducer containing multiple active elements?
• Dynamic range in ultrasound systems is controlled by which control?
• The region from the transducer to the minimum beam cross-sectional area is known as which zone?
• Can grayscale imaging be adjusted by the sonographer?
• Which statement best describes destructive interference?
• Is a sound wave a pressure wave made of compressions and rarefactions?
• If we increase the frequency, the near zone length is:
• The accuracy of reflector depth position on an A-mode, B-mode, or M-mode display is called?
• Which definition correctly describes the period of a wave?
• The beam diameter at the focus is one-half the transducer diameter.
• Doppler shifts depend on which of the following?
• In real-time ultrasound, the relationship between imaging depth and frame rate is best described as
• Pre-processing occurs at which stage in ultrasound image formation?
• The reject control is used to adjust the appearance of which objects?
• If the wave amplitude doubles, what happens to the acoustic power?
• The angle between the motion and the ultrasound beam enters into the Doppler shift calculation as which trigonometric function?
• Which boundary produces the strongest reflection?
• What are the units of longitudinal resolution?
• Which term describes the time between the start of one pulse and the start of the next pulse?
• What can pulsed Doppler measure that continuous wave cannot?
• Which change improves lateral resolution by narrowing the beam width?
• What Doppler angle is most inaccurate?
• What is not the responsibility of the sonographer?
• Which unit is typically used to express Doppler frequency shifts?
• Which statement about ultrasound frequency and resolution is true?
• Post-processing occurs at which point in the imaging workflow?
• The maximum frame rate in real-time ultrasound is primarily determined by
• Put in increasing order of propagation speed
• Which term describes the display feature that preserves echoes over time, helping visualize motion?
• Doppler spectral aliasing is most likely to occur when:
• Which statement about wave speed is true?
• Attenuation is measured in decibels per unit length and uses what type of scale?
• The process of reducing the difference between the smallest and largest voltages is called ________.
• If 300,000 cycles occur in one second, what is the frequency?
• The creation of an image by scanning from different angles is best described as what?
• What artifact has a grainy appearance and is caused by the interference effects of scattered sound?
• Impedance is the product of which two tissue properties?
• If the beam area is doubled while intensity remains unchanged, power will
• What should you do first when entering a hospital room to perform an ultrasound exam?
• In ultrasound, the Fraunhofer zone corresponds to which region?
• Which statement describes the impact of increasing the number of bits per pixel?
• The gray-scale variation in a pulsed-wave Doppler spectrum primarily represents what?
• Which statement describes an exception about in-vitro bioeffects?
• Which form of cavitation is most likely to produce microstreaming in the intracellular fluid and shear stresses?
• If two media share the same propagation speed but have different densities, how does impedance change?
• Attenuation in soft tissue is closest to:
• In soft tissue, the attenuation coefficient in dB/cm is approximately equal to one-half of which quantity, expressed in MHz?
• What measures the output of a transducer?
• While propagating, a sound wave is refracted. Finally, it returns to the transducer. The system processes the sound wave as if it has:
• In ultrasound, which region is where the beam is narrowest?
• Which statement about exposure to acoustic energy is true?
• In A-mode ultrasound displays, how is depth represented?
• What is the standard for communication between medical imaging computers?
• How many bits are needed to represent 1024 gray shades?
• Which has the greatest amount of attenuation?
• Which instrument is used to measure ultrasound beam intensity?
• If lines per frame are changed while imaging depth remains constant, what else would change?
• Time-of-flight in ultrasound refers to what?
• Which statement accurately describes the effect of increasing frequency on penetration depth?
• The most likely amount of reflection at a boundary between soft tissue is:
• What is displayed on the y-axis of an M-mode image?
• In a real time scanner, which factor determines the maximum frame rate?
• For a 5 MHz wave, which medium yields the longest wavelength?
• Identify one of the advantages of coded excitation.
• Rectification and smoothing are associated with which processing stage?
• The distance over which the ultrasound beam remains relatively narrow and maintains good lateral resolution is called which term?
• If a reflector moves twice as far from the transducer, how does that affect the time-of-flight of the sound pulse?
• The consolidation of many images into a single frame best describes which imaging concept?
• Which parameter is determined by the source?
• Which unit is used to express volume measurements in ultrasound contexts?
• Doppler shift is maximal when the flow is parallel to the ultrasound beam.
• Regarding dynamic range, increasing it affects grayscale in which way?
• With the presence of which phenomenon do we see more boundaries than there are reflecting surfaces?
• How many bits are needed to represent 16 shades of grey?
• The propagation speed of ultrasound in the AIUM test object is:
• The statement 'A sonographer's education ends when they become registered' is
• Which of the following is a typical unit for amplitude of an ultrasound signal?
• Which component is responsible for converting echo timing into a display image by creating pixels from the received data?
• All of the following will improve temporal resolution EXCEPT:
• The production of deformation from voltage is called?
• Which of these intensities is the smallest?
• Images on a videotape are stored using which method?
• What happens to venous blood flow to the heart during expiration?
• A transducer with more than one active element is called:
• Which pair of medium properties determines the propagation speed of ultrasound?
• Dynamic range is defined as the ratio of the smallest to largest amplitude that can be processed without distortion.
• As the impedance difference between two media becomes very large, which phenomenon increases?
• Coded excitation originates from which component of the ultrasound system?
• According to AIUM bioeffects, there have been no confirmed bioeffects below intensities of what SPTA?
• If wires in an AIUM test object do not appear in the same place as on the display, what is amiss?
• The Curie Temperature has which effect on the piezoelectric material in ultrasound transducers?
• The Doppler shift is a measure of which of the following?
• Which of the following is associated with cavitation?
• What is the name of the receiver function that corrects for attenuation?
• If the angle between the ultrasound pulse and the boundary is 90 degrees, this incidence is called?
• Filling in of an anechoic region due to finite slice thickness is known as which artifact?
• If the frame rate increases and lines per frame are unchanged, what option best describes the change that occurs?
• Which boundary will create the strongest reflection?
• If a 5 MHz wave is traveling in the tissues listed below, which will have the longest wavelength?
• In a pulsed ultrasound transducer, which factor primarily determines the emitted frequency?
• Multiple reflections that are equally spaced are called:
• Which artifact is described as a ghosting artifact?
• Which quantity does Doppler shift primarily indicate?
• Which cavitation form is characterized by stable bubble oscillation without collapse?
• Which of the following will result in the greatest number of shades of gray in a digital image display?
• What is a typical Doppler frequency?
• Which of the following is not one of the primary attenuation components?
• Which of the following is not a beam steering technique for a mechanical scan head?
• Which is most likely to create Rayleigh Scattering?
• Which artifact appears most commonly with highly reflective objects?
• Which is not a part of the transducer?
• What are the units of intensity?
• Decimal uses bases of 10; binary uses base 2. Which option lists the base for binary?
• What is the elimination of voltages that do not exceed a certain level?
• Which statement about Doppler shifts is correct?
• What is the frequency range for medical diagnostic Doppler transducers?
• Power mode Doppler is typically associated with which characteristics?
• To measure the ultrasound beam intensity, use a
• What is the minimum value of the duty factor?
• Which conversion turns digital signals into analog signals for display in imaging systems?
• If the angle between the ultrasound pulse and the boundary is 56 degrees, this incidence is called?
• How does increasing frequency affect attenuation and penetration in soft tissue?
• With normal incidence, what factors affect refraction of ultrasound?
• The Nyquist limit in Doppler ultrasound is defined as which of the following?
• What is the effect of decreasing pulse duration on axial resolution?
• Impedance is defined as the product of propagation speed and density. Which pair of properties is involved?
• Volume has which unit?
• Sound Intensity decreased by 75% is how decibels of attenuation?
• Which statement describes the duty factor in pulsed ultrasound?
• The Fraunhofer region in ultrasound corresponds to which zone?
• The dB is defined as the ______ of two intensities.
• If the round-trip time doubles, the reflector distance changes by what factor?
• Doppler shifts are always created when the source and receiver are in motion relative to each other.
• The more bits per pixel:
• What is the primary effect of increasing transmit power on image quality?
• A Thermal Index value of 3 implies what potential tissue temperature change?
• If the distance to a target is doubled, the time-of-flight for the pulse round-trip is:
• Which statement about ultrasound frequency and resolution is true?
• Harmonics in ultrasound imaging are created primarily in which medium?
• Which ultrasound system component generates the electrical pulse used to excite the transducer?
• Which factor increases patient exposure during an ultrasound exam?
• Which of the following has the greatest influence on temporal resolution?
• Which resolution is determined by the spatial pulse length?
• Which is an advantage of coded excitation in ultrasound imaging?
• Sound waves are which of the following?
• The Doppler shift is the _______ of two frequencies.
• In a water tank scan, which region of the sound beam has the highest intensity?
• Changing which of the following would not cause any change in a hard copy image output?
• Which factor improves lateral resolution?
• A hydrophone is used to measure which aspect of an ultrasonic signal?
• Which statement describes the effect of increasing transducer diameter on lateral resolution?
• If frequency increases, the near zone length is:
• Which statement accurately describes reverberation artifacts?
• If the spatial pulse length is 10 mm, what is the axial resolution?
• If the intensity of a sound beam remains unchanged while the beam area is reduced in half, what has happened to the power?
• What is the location of the minimum cross-sectional area of the beam?
• The range equation relates distance from the reflector to which two quantities?
• A boundary roughness tends to cause which phenomenon?
• Which parameter most directly determines the maximum PRF in ultrasound imaging?
• The effects of soft tissue on ultrasound are called which property?
• Which is not an acoustic variable?
• What effect do microbubble contrast agents have on ultrasound images?
• In the empirical approach, the relationship studied is typically between exposure and response.
• If the ultrasound instrument's output is increased by 60 dB, the beam intensity increases by approximately how many times?
• In a homogeneous medium, if the speed of sound is 1540 m/s and the frequency is 2 MHz, what is the wavelength?
• If the patient does not speak English, which action is best to obtain informed consent?
• What determines the propagation speed of ultrasound in a homogeneous medium?
• Which adjustment is most appropriate when the ultrasound image displays only strong reflectors with little background detail?
• What is the approximate decibel change when a signal's intensity is reduced to one half?
• Which description best characterizes an ideal epidemiological bioeffects study?
• Which of the following represents the best lateral resolution?
• Which component is primarily responsible for shaping the transmitted ultrasound beam and coordinating receive timing in an array system?
• What is the term for the time from the start of a pulse to its end?
• Power of sound has units of:
• At the focus, the beam diameter is ______ the transducer diameter.
• What defines spatial pulse length?
• Which term describes the fraction of time the machine is emitting a pulse?
• In a B-mode display, which axis is used for the amplitude of the reflection?
• If a system is not displaying clear images in the far field, this may indicate a problem with which component?
• What happens to reflections as impedance mismatch between media increases?
• The amplitude of a boundary reflection depends on what property of the two media?
• Which material yields the greatest attenuation?
• Which condition improves lateral resolution?
• An ultrasound system is set to 0db and is transmitting at full intensity. What is the output power when the system is transmitting at 10% of full intensity?
• The sonographer can influence the duty factor of the ultrasound machine.
• Shadowing in ultrasound imaging may occur due to what?
• Which statement about biological effects of ultrasound in laboratory settings is correct?
• Which factor primarily determines the signal amplitude at the transducer in an ultrasound system?
• What is the actual time that an ultrasound machine is creating a pulse?
• Attenuation coefficient is typically expressed as
• Snell's law describes the physics of which phenomenon?
• Which type of artifact is most closely associated with depth errors caused by incorrect sound speed assumptions?
• If the output of the machine is increased by 20 dB, the beam intensity increases by how much?
• Axial resolution is determined by which parameter?
• Which component is the active element in the transducer?
• The propagation speed of an ultrasound wave is equal to the product of which two quantities?
• Which statement describes the effect of increasing pixels per inch?
• What happens to the speed of sound in a medium when the bulk modulus of the medium decreases?
• If a 5 MHz wave travels through tissues such as fat, air, muscle, and bone, which will have the shortest wavelength?