NCT Quality Control & Equipment Assurance 3

Question 1

Which organization provides nuclear cardiology laboratory accreditation standards that include specific equipment quality assurance requirements?

Accepted Answer

IAC (Intersocietal Accreditation Commission) and ACR (American College of Radiology)

Answer

OSHA and EPA jointly

Answer

NRC and FDA exclusively

Answer

Joint Commission only

Question 2

The Jaszczak phantom is used in SPECT quality control primarily to evaluate:

Accepted Answer

System tomographic resolution, contrast, and uniformity simultaneously using rods and spheres

Answer

Energy resolution and photopeak position

Answer

Collimator septal penetration at high energies

Answer

Dose calibrator linearity

Question 3

A pixel size calibration test on a gamma camera is performed to verify that:

Accepted Answer

Image pixel dimensions accurately represent true physical distances in the patient or phantom

Answer

Pixel count rates are uniform across the matrix

Answer

The display monitor is rendering pixels at the correct brightness

Answer

Energy windowing is consistent between adjacent pixels

Question 4

The count rate capability test determines:

Accepted Answer

The activity level at which dead time losses become clinically significant (typically 20% count loss)

Answer

The minimum detectable activity for a given collimator

Answer

The maximum imaging time allowable per patient

Answer

The sensitivity of the detector at low count rates

Question 5

Which QC procedure verifies that an attenuation correction system (CT or external source) is functioning correctly for cardiac SPECT?

Accepted Answer

Imaging a uniform cylinder phantom and confirming reconstructed uniformity after attenuation correction

Answer

Acquiring a flood field with the attenuation correction source only

Answer

Performing a daily COR calibration with and without the CT component

Answer

Checking pixel size calibration on the CT component alone

Question 6

According to ASNC imaging guidelines, nuclear cardiology quality control records should be retained for a minimum of:

Accepted Answer

3 years

Answer

6 months

Answer

1 year

Answer

5 years

Question 7

If daily QC reveals that the gamma camera's energy peaking has drifted by more than 10% from the expected photopeak position, the appropriate action is to:

Accepted Answer

Halt clinical imaging, re-peak the camera, repeat QC, and document the corrective action before resuming

Answer

Proceed with imaging and correct during post-processing

Answer

Notify the supervising physician and continue scanning at reduced dose

Answer

Adjust the imaging time to compensate for reduced count detection