Explore ultrasound quality assurance and performance testing, including tissue phantoms, resolution and measurement testing, transducer checks, Doppler testing, and the statistics used to evaluate diagnostic performance.

Learn why ultrasound artifacts happen, how to recognize common resolution, position, attenuation, and propagation artifacts, and when an artifact can help—or mislead—you during an exam.

Learn how to optimize spectral and color Doppler using controls like PRF, scale, baseline, wall filter, gain, sample volume, angle correction, and color box settings—and how to troubleshoot common Doppler problems.

Break down the Doppler effect, Doppler shift and equation, angle relationships, and the principles behind continuous-wave, pulsed-wave, color, and power Doppler.

Learn the physics of blood flow, including laminar and turbulent flow, resistance, pressure, energy, stenosis, Bernoulli’s principle, and the factors that determine how blood moves through vessels.

Explore how ultrasound contrast agents work, how microbubbles interact with sound, and how contrast-specific imaging techniques use those responses to enhance visualization.

Learn how harmonic frequencies are created, how tissue harmonic imaging works, and how techniques like pulse inversion and power modulation can improve image quality and reduce unwanted artifacts.

Understand how dynamic range and compression control the number of gray shades in an ultrasound image, how changing them affects contrast, and when a sonographer would increase or decrease dynamic range clinically.