86. ULTRASOUNDS: QUALITY ASSURANCE OF ULTRASOUNDS

Question 1

1. What does the Ultrasound Quality Assurance program ensure?

Answer 1

• it ensures image quality is maintained
• it ensures that the patient is safe

Question 2

2. What needs to be tested with the purchase of new Equipment?

Answer 2

• the beam
• the receiver
• the display
• other characteristics

THIS SHOULD ALSO BE:
- routinely checked

Question 3

3. What does Routine Quality Assurance confirm?

Answer 3

• it confirms that measured parameters do not exceed
  the stipulated criteria
• it looks at the several different transducers for each
  system

Question 4

4. List the 8 Parameters measured in Quality Assurance?

Answer 4

1. Low-Contrast Object Detectability
2. Axial and Lateral Spatial Resolution
3. Sensitivity
4. Depth of Beam Penetration
5. Image Uniformity
6. Signal to Noise Ratio
7. Dynamic Range
8. Vertical and Horizontal measurement

Question 5

5. What do Quality Assurance phantoms do?

Answer 5

• they have targets
• these targets range in size and acoustic impedance
• these targets are embedded in tissue-equivalent gel
• they then give us specific results

Question 6

6. What can be said about the interpretation of these results from the Quality Assurance Phantoms?

Answer 6

• the interpretation can be somewhat subjective
• the results do not reproduce themselves

Question 7

7. What has been put into place to make the results less subjective?

Answer 7

• there are protocols that check he measurements