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The Diagnostic Radiology exam has 300 questions and runs 5 hours.
These 10 free Diagnostic Radiology questions are organized by exam domain, so you can see how each part of the Primary Certification in Diagnostic Radiology blueprint is tested. Reveal the answer and explanation under each question.
Two otherwise identical cell cultures receive the same total absorbed dose of low-LET x-rays. One receives a single exposure; the other receives two equal exposures separated by several hours. Oxygenation is unchanged, and cell proliferation is negligible during the interval. More cells survive the divided exposure. This result most directly demonstrates:
Correct answer: B - Repair of sublethal radiation injury between exposures
During optimization of a liver CT protocol using filtered back projection, phantom image noise measures 15 HU at 120 mAs. Detecting the intended low-contrast lesions requires noise of 10 HU or less. Tube potential, phantom size, pitch, slice thickness, and reconstruction kernel remain unchanged; automatic exposure control is disabled and quantum noise predominates. What is the lowest listed tube-current-time product expected to meet the noise target?
Correct answer: C - 270 mAs
On an abdominal MR acquisition, bright and dark bands at a fat-water interface obscure a lesion margin. The displacement follows the frequency-encoding direction and persists when the number of signal averages is increased. Field of view and matrix must remain unchanged. Which adjustment most directly reduces the displacement?
Correct answer: A - Increase the receiver bandwidth
Progressive exertional dyspnea prompts CT pulmonary angiography in a 61-year-old woman. Several segmental arteries contain thin webs and eccentric wall-adherent filling defects, with abrupt downstream narrowing. The lungs show geographic mosaic attenuation, and the bronchial arteries are enlarged. The pulmonary abnormalities are best explained by:
Correct answer: D - Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary vascular disease
Renal-protocol MRI characterizes an incidental 2.8-cm cystic renal mass. Its wall is smooth and thin. Five smooth septa, each approximately 1 mm thick, show unequivocal enhancement on subtraction images. There is no septal irregularity, thickened wall, or enhancing nodule. What Bosniak v2019 category should be assigned?
Correct answer: A - Bosniak IIF
Thyroid ultrasound in a 47-year-old woman shows a 1.2-cm solid hypoechoic nodule with smooth margins and a wider-than-tall shape. It contains a coarse macrocalcification with posterior shadowing, but no punctate echogenic foci. There are no suspicious cervical nodes, prior neck irradiation, or familial thyroid cancer syndromes. Using ACR TI-RADS, what recommendation belongs in the report?
Correct answer: D - TR4; follow-up thyroid ultrasound in 1 year
Stereotactic vacuum-assisted biopsy is performed for an 18-mm group of fine pleomorphic breast calcifications. Histology shows benign fibroadipose tissue. No calcifications are visible on the specimen radiograph or in the histologic sections, and the target remains on the postbiopsy mammogram. How should the benign result affect the next step?
Correct answer: C - Repeat stereotactic sampling of the residual calcifications
A 66-year-old man with a previous laparotomy presents with abrupt abdominal pain and vomiting. Contrast-enhanced CT shows a C-shaped small-bowel loop with two adjacent transition points. Which additional CT finding would most strongly suggest impaired bowel viability?
Correct answer: B - Markedly reduced mural enhancement compared with adjacent loops
A 2-day-old infant has bilious vomiting. Ultrasound shows clockwise wrapping of mesenteric vessels around the superior mesenteric artery. On an upper gastrointestinal study, the duodenojejunal junction is low and right-sided, and the proximal jejunum has a corkscrew configuration. Which diagnosis unifies these findings?
Correct answer: A - Malrotation with midgut volvulus
A 74-year-old man with unexplained ventricular wall thickening undergoes Tc-99m PYP scintigraphy. Myocardial uptake is clearly greater than rib uptake, and SPECT confirms uptake within myocardium rather than the blood pool. Serum immunofixation detects a monoclonal protein. Which conclusion is justified by this combination of results?
Correct answer: D - The scan does not establish the amyloid subtype; tissue confirmation and amyloid typing are needed
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