Beam hardening:

a. involves selective removal of lower energy x-rays.

b. decreases the average energy of the beam.
c. causes a more mono-energetic beam.
d. lowers the maximum energy of an x-ray spectrum.
e. is of no use in mammography.

Answer:

a) T
b) F, increases.
c) T
d) F, unchanged.
e) F

Techenisum m99:

a. is used as salt.
b. has half life 6 hours.
c. is mostly excreted by kidney
d. is plasma protein bound.
e. is taken up and secreted by gastric celles .

Answer:

a. T
b. T
c. F, 50% excreted by kidney.
d. T
e. T

In Macroradiography:

a. A large focal spot is used

b. Immobilisation is not needed
c. No grid is needed
d. Fast screens may be used
e. Quantum mottle is increased

Answer:

a. F, Very small focal spot must be used(eg 0.1mm),otherwise geometric blurring would be
unacceptable
b. F, Immobilisation is important because movement blurring may result as exposure time may
have to be increased
c. T, Air gap reduces the scatter
d. T, because it reduces the additional exposure needed.
e. F, The same number of Xray photons are absorbed in the screen for the same film
blackening,so quantum mottle is not increased

Reference: Physics for Medical Imaging, Farr &Allisy Roberts

In digital fluorosopy the following are desirable:

a. a tube focal spot of about 0.3mm

b. a TV camera tube with a relatively long lag
c. low electronic noise in the TV chain
d. A higher band width in the television chain to reduce electronic noise
e. A matrix with a higher pixel matrix for better spatial resolution

Answer:

a. F, the focal spot should not be too small as repeated exposures would then cause too much
tube heating and limit its use

b. F, the lag should be as short as possible, preferably the image on the input phosphor should
be erased out after every frame readout.A lead vidicon target, plumbicon, has an ideal short lag .

c. T, This is obviously a desirable factor

d. F, The higher the band width the MORE the noise. One way of reducing the bandwidth
required is to reduce the frame rate, for example from 30 per second to less than 10 frames per
second. In addition , smaller bandwidths allow simpler and cheaper designs

e. T, The larger the pixel matrix the better the spatial resolution. For example, a pixel matrix size
of 1024X1024 has a better spatial resolution than a pixel matrix of 512X512

Regarding radiation exposure:

a. Lymphocytes are the most sensitive cells to low-dose radiation exposure

b. Majority of background radiation is attributable to radon
c. Of 30 Gy, mortality rate is 100%
d. Of 10 Gy, bone marrow can still regenerate
e. Of 5 Gy, intestinal ulceration develops

Answer:

a. T
b. T, 80%
c. T
d. T, however above this, death becomes more
likely
e. F, requires doses >10 Gy
The following are examples of electromagnetic radiation:

a. microwaves
b. neutrons
c. ultra-violet
d. ultrasound
e. bremstralung

Answer:

a. true
b. false
c. true
d. false
e. true

Regarding Radiographic positioning:

a. Centring point for AP hip joints is the symphysis pubis

b. Centring point for AP shoulder joint is the coracoid process
c. A skyline view of the knee is always taken with the patient prone
d. A lateral view of the elbow is taken with the forearm pronated
e. Centring point for a PA chest radiograph is the sixth thoracic vertebra

Answer:

a. F, 2.5 cm above the symphysis pubis

b. T
c. F, May be taken with patient sitting and limb flexed
d. T
e. T

Regarding the X-ray spectrum:

a. A three-phase generator produces more x-ray and at lower energies than those
produced by a single-phase generator, at a given kVp and mA.
b. Increasing the mA has no effect on the shape of the x-ray spectrum.
c. The effective energy of the continuous spectrum lies between one-half and three-
quarters of the kVp.
d. The spectrum is affected by changing the atomic number of the target.
e. The higher the atomic number of the target, the greater the efficiency.

Answer:

a. F, A three-phase generator produces more x-ray and at HIGHER energies than those
produced by a single-phase generator, at a given kVp and mA
b. T
c. F, The effective energy of the continuous spectrum lies between one-third to one-half of the
kVp.
d. F, the spectrum is not affected by the atomic number of the target
e. T

Regarding Xray spectra:

a. General radiography has more of Compton scatter.

b. Mammograms apply a lower contrast.
c. Contrast differences in CT scanning is derived substantially fom density differences.
d. Photoelectric scatter dominates in mammography.
e. Good scatter rejection in CT improves primary to scatter ratio.

Answer:

a. T. 60% Compton scatter, 40% Compton scatter

b. F. Higher contrast.
c. T.
d. T. 60% PE scatter, 30% Compton scatter, 10% Rayleigh scatter.
e. T

Intensifying screens:

a. reduce exposure of patient

b. provide for more effective transfer of energy to the film
c. increase film contrast
d. increase effective film speed
e. improve definition

Answer:

a. T
b. T
c. T
d. T
e. F

19/10/7 Thanks to Ambika Bhasin for pointing out that c. should be true.
Screens increase film speed and gamma and hence should increase film contrast.

In mammography:

a. A K edge filter cannot be used

b. A rhodium target used instead of molybdenum will produce an X ray with higher mean
energy
c. Moving grids cannot be used
d. Tube voltage is typically 100kV
e. Focal spot is typically 0.3mm or may be less.
Answer:

a. False
b. True
c. False
d. False
e. True

Regarding CT:

a. xenon gas detectors are efficient to acquire data.

b. spiral CT decreases spatial resolution in z axis.
c. ring artefacts are seen if the X ray detector is not properly calibrated.
d. filtered back projections allows short computation time with relatively accurate
solutions.
e. Pitch can affect the average patient dose for total examination

Answer:

a. False. They are relatively inaccurate & are replaced by solid state detectors like cadmium
tungstate.
b.False. Opposite is true.
c.True. It incorrectly back projects the data.
d.True. It allows processing immediately after it is obtained.
e.True.Extending the pitch reduces the dose & vice versa.

The following isotopes have a half-life over 24 hrs:

a. I-132
b. I-123
c. I-131
d. Tc-99
e. Rn

Answer:

a. F. 2.3 hours(minimum)
b. F. 13 hours
c. T. 8 days(longest)
d. F. 6 hours
e. T. 3.8 days

Regarding geometric unsharpness:

a. minimized by small focal spot size

b. usually larger than parallex unsharpness
c. depends on kv
d. reduced by moving grid
e. increased by scatterd radiation

Answer:

a. T
b. T
c. F ONLY DEPENDS ON FOCAL SPOT SIZE,FOCAS FILM DISTANCE AND OBJECT FILM
DISTANCE
d. F AS ABOVE
e. T

Regarding the strucrture of the atom:

a. In an electrically neutral atom is the same as the number of orbital electrons.

b. The atomic mass (A) of an element is always equal to or greater than its atomic
number(Z).
c. An electron is characterised by having no mass and a unit negative charge.
d. The binding energy of a K shell electron is greater than an M shell electron.
e. Nuclear echange forces are effective at distances upto 0.001mm.

Answer:

A. F elctrically neutral means PROTONS = orbital electrons

B. T
C. F electron mass=9.11x10 to the power -13
D. T
E. F 10 to the power -13

Increase in kv can result in the following:

a. Increase in effective energy of x ray spectrum

b. shifts x ray spectrum to the right
c. increase in scatter beam reaching the film
d. increase in film contrast
e. only continous radiation is produced

Answer:

a. T
b. T
c. T
d. F, decreases the contrast due to increase in scatter beam reaching the film
e. F, above 70 kvp both continous and characteristic radiation are produced.

During diagnostic x ray examination, the interactions taking place:

a. are mainly photoelectric interaction

b. are mainly compton effect
c. always produce an absorbed dose
d. interactions involve both electron and nucleus of the patient
e. depend on the kv used

Answer:

a. F, mainly compton effect.

b. T
c. F, no transfer of energy during coherent effect.
d. F, nuclei not involved at diagnostic energy range.
e. T.

Regarding Contrast media use in radiology:

a. there is an increased incidence of adverse reaction in patients with pheochromocytoma.

b. reactions may b classified life threatening and not-life threating

c. renal imaging is possible in patients whose serum creatinine is below 500umol/l
d. the dose for the transplanted kidney patients should be less than in other patients even
in presence of normal serum creatinine.
e. intravasation during contrast urography is an indication to terminate the study.

Answer:

a. T, also in patients witrh thyrotoxicosis and pregnancy, ashmatic patients, patients with history
of allergy and extremes of age
b. F, adverse reactions r classified into minor, moderate requiring treatment and severe life
threating reactions e.g anaphylaxis.
c. F, renal imaging with serum creatinine above 3000 umol/l is poor and alternative imaging
modalities should b considered due to poor excretion by the kidney.
d. F, dose is same for tranplant kidney as non-transplant.the need 4 iv contrast imaging studies is
less however due to the superficial lie leading to u/s being favoured.indications for iv contrast
include postoperative to exclude leakage and clot-hge formation, obstruction.
e. T, intravasation occurs in about 4 % of studies and is considered a complication. predisposing
to it is acute inflammation and bad technique using too much force. symptoms include pain and
bleeding per urethra. examination should b terminated and explain to patient wt to expect+ give
antibiotics and observe the bleeding. it should b documented andthe urologist should also be
informed.

The following are causes of extra-osseous uptake on Tc-99m bone scintigraphy:

a. Cardioversion
b. Amyloidosis
c. Muscle haematoma
d. Buerger's disease
e. Inflammatory beast carcinoma

Answer:
a. T
b. T
c. T
d. F
e. T

Regarding computed tomography:

a. A CT number of 0 is assigned to water

b. Image quality is limited by electronic noise
c. Axial image resolution is improved with reduction in slice width
d. An unfiltered X-Ray beam is used
e. A typical effective dose for a head CT scan is 10mSv

Answer:

aT
bF
cT
dF
eF