Continuous wave ultrasound cannot create anatomical images.

Continuous wave ultrasound cannot create anatomical images.

• A. Cannot
• B. Can
• C. Sometimes
• D. Often

Answer: (A)

The key idea is that depth information is lost with continuous wave ultrasound. Because CW transmits continuously and listens continuously, there’s no way to determine where along the depth the echoes come from. Without that range (depth) information, you can’t build a two-dimensional map of anatomy. That’s why continuous wave is great for detecting Doppler shifts and measuring flow velocity, but it cannot create anatomical images like a B-mode image, which relies on pulsed emissions and time-gate echoes to map depth. So the statement is best described as cannot. The other options would imply some imaging capability or partial imaging, which doesn’t align with how CW operates.

The key idea is that depth information is lost with continuous wave ultrasound. Because CW transmits continuously and listens continuously, there’s no way to determine where along the depth the echoes come from. Without that range (depth) information, you can’t build a two-dimensional map of anatomy. That’s why continuous wave is great for detecting Doppler shifts and measuring flow velocity, but it cannot create anatomical images like a B-mode image, which relies on pulsed emissions and time-gate echoes to map depth.

So the statement is best described as cannot. The other options would imply some imaging capability or partial imaging, which doesn’t align with how CW operates.