Which change to ultrasound settings best reduces potential tissue heating while preserving image quality?

• A. Increase Receiver gain
• B. Increase transmit power
• C. Decrease transmit power
• D. Decrease display depth

Answer: (C)

Tissue heating comes from the energy the ultrasound beam deposits in tissue. The more transmit power you use, the more energy is delivered, which increases heating. Lowering transmit power directly reduces that energy, cutting the risk of heating while you can keep image quality up by adjusting other image controls (like receiver gain or processing) to maintain a good signal-to-noise ratio.

The other options don’t reduce heating in the same way: increasing receiver gain changes brightness after the echoes are received but doesn’t change the energy sent into tissue; increasing transmit power would raise heating; decreasing display depth doesn’t affect the energy delivered to tissue, only what portion of the image is shown.