SPI Practice Test Verified A
How does adjusting the depth setting impact frame rate?
✔️✔️Increasing depth reduces frame rate because the system requires more time to receive echoes
from deeper structures.
What is the main advantage of tissue harmonic imaging?
✔️✔️Tissue harmonic imaging improves image clarity by using higher-frequency harmonics, reducing
artifacts from superficial layers.
Explain the purpose of axial and lateral resolution.
✔️✔️Axial resolution distinguishes structures along the beam’s path, while lateral resolution
differentiates side-by-side structures.
How does gain differ from output power?
✔️✔️Gain amplifies returning echoes to adjust image brightness without increasing patient exposure,
while output power increases signal strength, affecting exposure.
What is the role of piezoelectric crystals in the transducer?
✔️✔️Piezoelectric crystals convert electrical energy to sound waves for transmission and sound waves
back to electrical signals for imaging.
What causes the edge shadow artifact?
✔️✔️Edge shadowing occurs at the edges of curved structures where refraction causes a shadow
beyond the structure’s boundaries.
Why is axial resolution typically better than lateral resolution?
✔️✔️Axial resolution depends on pulse length, which is usually shorter than beam width, allowing
finer detail along the beam’s path.
,What impact does adjusting the focus have on the lateral resolution?
✔️✔️Adjusting the focus improves lateral resolution at the focal point by narrowing the ultrasound
beam, enhancing image sharpness there.
Explain the purpose of the depth compensation control.
✔️✔️Depth compensation adjusts echo amplification at various depths, ensuring uniform image
brightness throughout the field.
How do side lobe artifacts form?
✔️✔️Side lobes are secondary sound beams from the transducer, creating weak echoes outside the
main beam path, which may obscure or misrepresent structures.
What does time-gain compensation (TGC) achieve in ultrasound imaging?
✔️✔️TGC selectively amplifies echoes based on depth, compensating for sound attenuation and
balancing brightness across the image.
Describe the effect of increasing the Doppler sample volume.
✔️✔️Increasing the sample volume broadens the Doppler signal, which can show multiple flow
velocities but may reduce clarity of peak velocities.
How does the beamformer contribute to image quality?
✔️✔️The beamformer directs and shapes the ultrasound beam, optimizing focus and minimizing
artifacts for clearer imaging.
What does increasing persistence do in ultrasound?
✔️✔️Increasing persistence averages multiple frames, reducing noise and creating a smoother image,
though it may reduce temporal resolution.
Explain the term “attenuation coefficient.”
✔️✔️The attenuation coefficient quantifies how much sound energy is lost per centimeter traveled,
influenced by tissue type and frequency.
,What does the term “echogenic” indicate?
✔️✔️Echogenic describes a tissue’s ability to reflect ultrasound waves, resulting in brighter areas on
the image.
Why are curved array transducers preferred for abdominal imaging?
✔️✔️Curved arrays provide a wider field of view, capturing large, deep structures effectively in
abdominal scans.
What causes posterior acoustic enhancement?
✔️✔️Posterior acoustic enhancement occurs when sound passes through a low-attenuation structure,
such as fluid, resulting in brightness behind it.
How does aliasing appear on a spectral Doppler display?
✔️✔️Aliasing appears as wrapping of the Doppler waveform, indicating velocities exceeding the
Nyquist limit.
What is the role of the Doppler angle in velocity measurements?
✔️✔️The Doppler angle affects velocity calculations; angles closer to 0° yield more accurate
measurements but can be challenging to achieve.
What are the effects of lower dynamic range on the ultrasound image?
✔️✔️Lower dynamic range increases image contrast, emphasizing differences between tissues but
reducing subtle details.
How does lateral resolution change with beam width?
✔️✔️Lateral resolution improves with narrower beam width, allowing better separation of side-by-
side structures.
What is compound imaging used for?
, ✔️✔️Compound imaging combines images from multiple angles, reducing speckle and enhancing
border visibility.
How does the thermal index (TI) relate to patient safety?
✔️✔️The thermal index indicates the risk of tissue heating; a higher TI suggests increased heat,
important for safety during prolonged scanning.
Which of the following do the source and the medium determine?
a. duty factor
b. frequency
c. propagation speed
d. axial resolution ✔️✔️d.
Axial resolution is affected by all of the following EXCEPT
a. frequency
b. damping
c. spatial pulse length
d. focusing ✔️✔️d.
Damping in a transducer
a. reduces the number of cycles in a pulse and increases the quality factor
b. increases the number of cycles in a pulse and increases penetration
c. causes poor axial and lateral resolution
d. reduces the duty factor and increases the range of transmitted frequencies ✔️✔️d.
Far zone beam divergence can be reduced on a single-element transducer by using
How does adjusting the depth setting impact frame rate?
✔️✔️Increasing depth reduces frame rate because the system requires more time to receive echoes
from deeper structures.
What is the main advantage of tissue harmonic imaging?
✔️✔️Tissue harmonic imaging improves image clarity by using higher-frequency harmonics, reducing
artifacts from superficial layers.
Explain the purpose of axial and lateral resolution.
✔️✔️Axial resolution distinguishes structures along the beam’s path, while lateral resolution
differentiates side-by-side structures.
How does gain differ from output power?
✔️✔️Gain amplifies returning echoes to adjust image brightness without increasing patient exposure,
while output power increases signal strength, affecting exposure.
What is the role of piezoelectric crystals in the transducer?
✔️✔️Piezoelectric crystals convert electrical energy to sound waves for transmission and sound waves
back to electrical signals for imaging.
What causes the edge shadow artifact?
✔️✔️Edge shadowing occurs at the edges of curved structures where refraction causes a shadow
beyond the structure’s boundaries.
Why is axial resolution typically better than lateral resolution?
✔️✔️Axial resolution depends on pulse length, which is usually shorter than beam width, allowing
finer detail along the beam’s path.
,What impact does adjusting the focus have on the lateral resolution?
✔️✔️Adjusting the focus improves lateral resolution at the focal point by narrowing the ultrasound
beam, enhancing image sharpness there.
Explain the purpose of the depth compensation control.
✔️✔️Depth compensation adjusts echo amplification at various depths, ensuring uniform image
brightness throughout the field.
How do side lobe artifacts form?
✔️✔️Side lobes are secondary sound beams from the transducer, creating weak echoes outside the
main beam path, which may obscure or misrepresent structures.
What does time-gain compensation (TGC) achieve in ultrasound imaging?
✔️✔️TGC selectively amplifies echoes based on depth, compensating for sound attenuation and
balancing brightness across the image.
Describe the effect of increasing the Doppler sample volume.
✔️✔️Increasing the sample volume broadens the Doppler signal, which can show multiple flow
velocities but may reduce clarity of peak velocities.
How does the beamformer contribute to image quality?
✔️✔️The beamformer directs and shapes the ultrasound beam, optimizing focus and minimizing
artifacts for clearer imaging.
What does increasing persistence do in ultrasound?
✔️✔️Increasing persistence averages multiple frames, reducing noise and creating a smoother image,
though it may reduce temporal resolution.
Explain the term “attenuation coefficient.”
✔️✔️The attenuation coefficient quantifies how much sound energy is lost per centimeter traveled,
influenced by tissue type and frequency.
,What does the term “echogenic” indicate?
✔️✔️Echogenic describes a tissue’s ability to reflect ultrasound waves, resulting in brighter areas on
the image.
Why are curved array transducers preferred for abdominal imaging?
✔️✔️Curved arrays provide a wider field of view, capturing large, deep structures effectively in
abdominal scans.
What causes posterior acoustic enhancement?
✔️✔️Posterior acoustic enhancement occurs when sound passes through a low-attenuation structure,
such as fluid, resulting in brightness behind it.
How does aliasing appear on a spectral Doppler display?
✔️✔️Aliasing appears as wrapping of the Doppler waveform, indicating velocities exceeding the
Nyquist limit.
What is the role of the Doppler angle in velocity measurements?
✔️✔️The Doppler angle affects velocity calculations; angles closer to 0° yield more accurate
measurements but can be challenging to achieve.
What are the effects of lower dynamic range on the ultrasound image?
✔️✔️Lower dynamic range increases image contrast, emphasizing differences between tissues but
reducing subtle details.
How does lateral resolution change with beam width?
✔️✔️Lateral resolution improves with narrower beam width, allowing better separation of side-by-
side structures.
What is compound imaging used for?
, ✔️✔️Compound imaging combines images from multiple angles, reducing speckle and enhancing
border visibility.
How does the thermal index (TI) relate to patient safety?
✔️✔️The thermal index indicates the risk of tissue heating; a higher TI suggests increased heat,
important for safety during prolonged scanning.
Which of the following do the source and the medium determine?
a. duty factor
b. frequency
c. propagation speed
d. axial resolution ✔️✔️d.
Axial resolution is affected by all of the following EXCEPT
a. frequency
b. damping
c. spatial pulse length
d. focusing ✔️✔️d.
Damping in a transducer
a. reduces the number of cycles in a pulse and increases the quality factor
b. increases the number of cycles in a pulse and increases penetration
c. causes poor axial and lateral resolution
d. reduces the duty factor and increases the range of transmitted frequencies ✔️✔️d.
Far zone beam divergence can be reduced on a single-element transducer by using
