ARDMS Sonography Principles and Instrumentation Exam
ARDMS Sonography Principles and Instrumentation Exam is a trademark of its owner, which is not affiliated with and does not endorse Test Treasure Publication or TTP Prep.
ARDMS Sonography Principles and Instrumentation Exam is a trademark of its owner, which is not affiliated with and does not endorse Test Treasure Publication or TTP Prep.
10 sample questions for the ARDMS Sonography Principles and Instrumentation Exam, with the correct answer and an explanation for each. No account needed. Try each one before you open the answer.
Sections covered on the exam: Sound Waves, Units and Pulse Parameters, Sound and Tissue: Attenuation, Reflection and Refraction, Patient Care, Exam Workflow, Ergonomics and Bioeffects, Gray-Scale Artifacts and Advanced Imaging Techniques, Ultrasound Transducers, Pulse-Echo Imaging, Resolution and Frame Rate, Image Processing, Display and Optimization Controls, Spectral Doppler: Pulsed Wave, Continuous Wave and Waveforms, Color, Power and Tissue Doppler and Doppler Artifacts, Clinical Safety, Infection Control and Quality Assurance.
Question 1 · Sound Waves, Units and Pulse Parameters
Answer: C. 0.39 mm
Wavelength (mm) = 1.54 / frequency (MHz) = 1.54 / 4 = 0.385, about 0.39 mm. The value 2.6 mm comes from inverting the ratio (4 / 1.54), and 6.2 mm comes from multiplying (1.54 × 4) instead of dividing. The value 0.26 mm is the wavelength at about 6 MHz, not 4 MHz.
Question 2 · Gray-Scale Artifacts and Advanced Imaging Techniques
Answer: D. Grating lobe artifact
Electronic steering of an array with phased time delays strengthens grating lobes, which place echoes from off-axis structures into the image. Mirror image depends on a strong reflector, speed error depends on the medium, and enhancement depends on a weakly attenuating structure; steering does not cause any of these.
Question 3 · Pulse-Echo Imaging, Resolution and Frame Rate
Answer: D. Two echoes at 3 cm; one merged echo at 7 cm
Lateral resolution equals the beam width, so two side-by-side reflectors are resolved only when their separation is larger than the beam is wide. At 3 cm the 1.5 mm beam is narrower than the 2 mm gap, so two echoes appear; at 7 cm the 3 mm beam is wider than the gap, so the reflectors merge into one. Assuming the same result at both depths applies an axial resolution idea (constant with depth) to lateral resolution, which changes with beam width.
Question 4 · Patient Care, Exam Workflow, Ergonomics and Bioeffects
Answer: A. 200 cm/s
Area depends on diameter squared, so halving the diameter cuts the area to one quarter; by continuity (A1 × v1 = A2 × v2) velocity rises fourfold: 50 × 4 = 200 cm/s. Using the diameter ratio instead of the area ratio gives 100 cm/s, and 12.5 cm/s inverts the ratio.
Question 5 · Color, Power and Tissue Doppler and Doppler Artifacts
Answer: B. Aliasing; raise the color velocity scale
Color aliasing wraps from the brightest shade of one color to the brightest shade of the other without passing through black, and the fix is to raise the color scale (PRF). A true change of direction passes through a black band representing zero shift. Lowering the scale makes aliasing worse, and the wall filter acts on low shifts, not on the high shifts that alias.
Question 6 · Sound Waves, Units and Pulse Parameters
Answer: A. 0.77 mm
Wavelength = 1.54 / 6 = 0.257 mm, and SPL = cycles × wavelength = 3 × 0.257 = 0.77 mm. The value 0.39 mm halves the SPL, which gives the axial resolution instead, and 0.26 mm is a single wavelength. The value 4.6 mm multiplies 1.54 by 3 and ignores the frequency.
Question 7 · Gray-Scale Artifacts and Advanced Imaging Techniques
Answer: C. Each echo is produced by a single reflection
Reverberation occurs when sound bounces back and forth between two strong reflectors, so the later echoes are produced by multiple reflections; the system assumes one reflection per echo and places each extra echo deeper at equal intervals. Speed errors violate the 1,540 m/s assumption and misplace echoes in depth, side lobes and grating lobes violate the main-axis assumption, and shadowing and enhancement violate the uniform-attenuation assumption.
Question 8 · Pulse-Echo Imaging, Resolution and Frame Rate
Answer: D. 15.4 cm
Maximum depth (cm) = 77 / PRF (kHz) = 77 / 5 = 15.4 cm; equivalently PRP = 200 µs and 200 / 13 = 15.4 cm. The 7.7 cm answer halves it, 30.8 cm doubles it, and 38.5 cm multiplies 7.7 by 5 instead of dividing.
Question 9 · Patient Care, Exam Workflow, Ergonomics and Bioeffects
The following table lists the velocities measured from one cardiac cycle in the common femoral artery.
| Measurement | Value |
|---|---|
| Peak systolic velocity | 100 cm/s |
| End diastolic velocity | 20 cm/s |
| Time-averaged mean velocity | 40 cm/s |
Answer: D. 2.0
The resistive index (80 / 100 = 0.8) is a common confusion; PSV / mean gives 2.5, and inverting the ratio gives 0.5. The pulsatility index uses the mean velocity: PI = (PSV − EDV) / mean = (100 − 20) / 40 = 80 / 40 = 2.0.
Question 10 · Color, Power and Tissue Doppler and Doppler Artifacts
Answer: A. Lower the color velocity scale
A color scale set for arterial flow is too high for slow venous flow, so lowering it (and the color wall filter with it on most systems) makes the system sensitive to the small shifts of slow flow. Raising the scale or the wall filter reduces slow-flow sensitivity, and lowering the gain makes filling worse.
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