Sonography Principles and Instrumentation Outline
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Sonography Principles and Instrumentation
Content Outline

Updates to the following sections of the SPI Content Outline have been made: Sections I., V., & VI.

The topics being covered on the ARDMS examinations did not change with the release of the SPI in Spring 2009.  ARDMS’ volunteer subject-matter experts reviewed the current content of the specialty and physics examinations to determine which topics could be moved to the SPI examination and which needed to be covered at the specialty level.  A small amount of specialty-specific physics content was shifted from the UPI, CPI, and VPI physics examinations to the appropriate specialty examination, e.g., FE, PE, AE, or VT.  These changes are minor and will not affect any of the examinations’ overall structure.

I. Patient care, safety and communication [5%]

A. Patient identification / documentation

B. Patient interaction

C. Verification of requested examination

D. Emergency situations

E. Universal precautions

F. Bioeffects and ALARA

II. Physics principles [20%]

A. Properties of ultrasound waves

B. Interactions of sound with tissue

C. Power, intensity, and amplitude

D. Units of measurement

III. Ultrasound transducers [20%]

A. Transducer construction and characteristics

B. Transducer types (sector, linear, phased arrays, etc.)

C. Spatial resolution

D. Transducer selection

IV. Pulse-echo instrumentation [30%]

A. Display modes and their formation (A-mode, B-mode, M-mode, 3-D, etc.)

B. Transmission of ultrasound

C. Reception of ultrasound (preprocessing)

D. Beam former

E. Postprocessing of ultrasound signals

F. Pulse-echo imaging artifacts

G. Tissue harmonic imaging

H. Realtime ultrasound instrumentation

I. Recording and storage devices

V. Doppler instrumentation and hemodynamics [20%]

A. Ability to acquire color flow image

B. Ability to acquire a Doppler spectral image

C. Ability to take measurements from the spectral waveform

D. Hemodynamics

VI. Quality assurance / quality control of equipment [5%]

A. Preventive maintenance

B. Malfunctions

C. Performance testing with phantoms

Sample Questions 

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