Clinical Ultrasound Physics: A Workbook for Physicists, Residents, and Students

Most residents and sonographers agree that a thorough understanding of ultrasound physics principles enhances their performance in the clinical setting. However, students often have difficulty in translating textbook physics concepts into their clinical practice. This workbook is presented as an instructor's manual to assist physicists in teaching ultrasound physics concepts to non-physics personnel (residents, sonographers, graduate students, etc.) It outlines several demonstrations and exercises that emphasize the clinical implications of various scan parameter settings, including: power, gain, dynamic range, time-gain compensation, field-of-view, displayed depth, postprocessing, zoom (magnification), Doppler gate angle, Doppler gate size, Doppler gate position, and color flow imaging. There are discussions, where appropriate, on the effect of these parameters on resolution (axial and lateral), frame rate, depth of penetration, blood flow velocity, and overall image appearance. Demonstrations and discussion are also provided for harmonic imaging and aliasing in Doppler ultrasound as well as ultrasound safety considerations and biological effects.