ARRT REGISTRY EXAM PRACTICE TEST QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

ARRT REGISTRY EXAM PRACTICE TEST QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS beta particles - ANSWER- - not as ionizing but more penetrating - 8,000 times lighter than alpha - identical to high-speed electrons except for origin -1 cm thick block of wood or 1 mm thick lead shield would be sufficient for absorption proton - ANSWER- - positively charged components of an atom - number of protons = atomic number neutron - ANSWER- neutral components of an atom equivalent dose - ANSWER- a quantity that attempty to take into account the variation in biological harm produced by different types of radiation (Gy x QF = Sv) effective dose - ANSWER- takes into account the dose for all types of ionizing radiaiton to organs/tissues and the overall harm for developing radiation indiced cancer or genetic damage (mGy x QF x W(t) = mSv) coherent interaction - ANSWER- -a low energy photon interacts with an atom, causing vibration. the vibrations form a scattered x-ray photon two types: thompson (involves a single electron in the interaction) and Rayleigh (involves all electrons in the interaction) Compton interaction - ANSWER- an incoming photon interacts with a loosely bound electron, knocking it out of its shell, the photon losing some energy, and the scattered photon and recoil electron proceed in different directions photoelectric interaction - ANSWER- an interaction between an incoming photon and an inner shell electron, the incoming electron loses all of its energy kicking out the k shell electron photoelectric - ANSWER- probability of what interaction increases when the energy of the incident electron decreases and the atomic number of the irradiated atoms increases? pair production - ANSWER- -the incoming electron strongly interacts with the electric field surrounding the nucleus of the target atom -the energy of the photon is absorbed and converted to matter into two particles: a negatron and a positron photodisintegration - ANSWER- a high energy photon collides with the nucleus of an atom and directly absorbs all the photons energy, creating instability of the nucleus and emits a neutron/particle from the nucleus characteristic interaction - ANSWER- incident electron - kicks out k shell electron - outer shell electron jumps into k shell - creates xray photon *only above 70 kVp* somatic damage - ANSWER- biologic reactions in tissues of the body and the result of excessive occupational radiation exposure for early pioneers and excessive exposure of patients (radiodermatitis, cancer, blood disorders) erythema - ANSWER- -skin reddening -used to be the unit for measuring dose in - "received quantity of radiation that causes diffuse reddening over an area of skin after radiation" (equates to several gray) short term somatic effects - ANSWER- -nausea -fatigue -diffused redness of skin -intestinal disorders fever -blood disorders -shedding of the outer layer of skin long term somatic effect - ANSWER- -cataract formation -fibrosis -organ atrophy -reduced fertility sterility how do you convert from traditional to SI units - ANSWER- RAD/REM - Gy/Sv = divide by 100 Gy/Sv - RAD/REM = multiply by 100 exposure - ANSWER- when a volume of air is irradiated with x-rays or gamma rays, the neutral atoms in the air become liberated as they are ionized absorbed dose - ANSWER- the amount of energy absorbed by a structure