Why are sonographic images usually compressed before sending to PACS?

• A. Increase the real-time image frame rate
• B. Increase the spatial resolution
• C. Preserve measurements with the image data
• D. Reduce the time to transmit the image

Answer: (D)

Compressing ultrasound images before sending them to PACS is mainly about reducing the amount of data that must be transmitted over the network. Ultrasound exams generate large image sequences at high resolutions, which can create substantial file sizes. By compressing, you shrink those files, which speeds up transfer and lowers storage demands on the PACS. This is preferable to trying to increase frame rate or resolution through the network, which isn’t how transmission works and can even degrade quality if lossy compression is used. In practice, lossless or carefully chosen compression keeps diagnostic information intact while still providing the speed and efficiency needed for routing images to PACS.