B-Mode Controls

Question 1

What are the differences between the output power and the 2D Gain control?

Answer 1

• Higher output power gives stronger echoes, giving greater penetration depth.
• Adjusting the Output Power has no effect on the electronic noise.
• Higher 2D gain gives greater amplification, giving greater penetration depth.
• Increasing the 2D gain increases the electronic noise.

Question 2

How does turning the harmonics on affect the image?

Answer 2

• With HRes on the penetration is worse, but reverberation artefacts are reduced, boundaries of cysts are more clearly defined, and the interiors are darker.

Question 3

What is SonoCT?

Answer 3

Spatial compounding using three or five lines of sight, and averages them.
+ Speckle is finer, interfaces are clear, contrast resolution is improved
- Temporal resolution is worse.

Question 4

What is XRes?

Answer 4

• Real-time adaptive image processing algorithm
• Smoothing applied in uniform regions and along interfaces.
• Edge enhancement applied across interfaces.

Question 5

What is persistence?

Answer 5

• Weighted averaging of between 3 to 9 frames.
• Suppresses electronic noise.
• Should be off or low for cardiac imaging.