CET Technology & Digital Tools 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which DICOM tag stores the patient's date of birth in an echocardiography image file?
- (0010,0030) (Correct answer)
- (0008,0020)
- (0018,0088)
- (0028,0030)
Correct answer: (0010,0030)
DICOM tag (0010,0030) is the Patient Birth Date attribute within the Patient module.
Question 2: In a PACS-integrated echo lab, which protocol is used to transfer images from the echo machine to the archive server?
- DICOM C-STORE (Correct answer)
- HL7 ADT
- FHIR REST
- SNOMED CT
Correct answer: DICOM C-STORE
DICOM C-STORE is the service operation used to push image objects from an acquisition device to a storage server.
Question 3: What does the term 'frame rate' refer to in digital echocardiography?
- Number of 2D image frames acquired per second (Correct answer)
- Depth of the ultrasound beam in centimeters
- Number of focal zones selected
- Frequency of the transducer crystal
Correct answer: Number of 2D image frames acquired per second
Frame rate (frames per second) describes how many complete 2D images are captured each second, determining temporal resolution.
Question 4: Which knob or control on a modern echo machine adjusts the overall gain applied uniformly across the entire image depth?
- Master gain (Correct answer)
- Time gain compensation (TGC)
- Dynamic range
- Compression curve
Correct answer: Master gain
Master gain amplifies all returning signals equally regardless of depth, brightening or darkening the entire 2D image.
Question 5: A sonographer observes that the ECG trace displayed on the echo machine is inverted. Which component is most likely misconnected?
- Right arm (RA) and left arm (LA) electrodes swapped (Correct answer)
- Transducer cable to the wrong port
- Incorrect imaging depth selected
- Time gain compensation set too high
Correct answer: Right arm (RA) and left arm (LA) electrodes swapped
Swapping the RA and LA leads inverts the polarity of Lead I, which is the ECG trace displayed on most echo systems.
Question 6: In speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE) software, what raw data type does the algorithm analyze?
- 2D grayscale B-mode image frames (Correct answer)
- Continuous wave Doppler spectral data
- M-mode cursor position data
- Color Doppler velocity maps
Correct answer: 2D grayscale B-mode image frames
STE tracks unique acoustic speckle patterns across sequential 2D grayscale frames to derive myocardial strain.
Question 7: Which image quality metric describes the ability of an echo system to distinguish two closely spaced reflectors along the beam axis?
- Axial resolution (Correct answer)
- Lateral resolution
- Temporal resolution
- Contrast resolution
Correct answer: Axial resolution
Axial resolution is determined by the spatial pulse length and defines the minimum depth separation between two distinguishable reflectors.
CET Technology & Digital Tools 2
Which DICOM tag stores the patient's date of birth in an echocardiography image file?