ARRT RAD Exam Flashcards

Q: How many questions are on the ARRT Radiography exam?

ARRT lists 230 total questions: 200 scored items plus 30 pilot (unscored) items. Candidates are not told which items are pilot questions, so every item must be answered as if it counts.

Q: How long is the ARRT Radiography exam?

The ARRT primary-pathway handbook lists 230 minutes of test time within a 250-minute appointment window. Pacing across 230 total items matters as much as content mastery.

Q: What score do I need to pass ARRT Radiography?

ARRT uses scaled scoring with a published passing score of 75 for Radiography. Score reports are scaled, not raw percent-correct, so a 75 does not equal 75% of questions correct.

Q: How much is the ARRT Radiography exam fee?

ARRT's fee schedule lists the primary eligibility pathway fee for Radiography at $225. A failed attempt requires a new application and reapplication fee; confirm current pricing in your ARRT account before applying.

Q: What is the pass rate for ARRT Radiography?

ARRT's 2024 exam statistics report lists an 85.2% first-attempt pass rate for primary-pathway Radiography candidates. Use this as directional context and rely most on your own timed practice performance by content area.

Q: How is the ARRT Radiography exam content weighted?

The blueprint assigns Patient Care 16.5%, Safety 25%, Image Production 25.5%, and Procedures 33%. Procedures and Image Production together make over half the scored exam, so study time should mirror that emphasis.

Question 1

Normal adult resting pulse range

Accepted Answer

60-100 bpm. Below 60 is bradycardia; above 100 is tachycardia. Trend across readings, not a single value, drives clinical concern during imaging.

Question 2

Normal adult respiratory rate

Accepted Answer

12-20 breaths per minute. Counts outside this range signal respiratory distress or depression and change how you position, monitor, and pace the patient during longer studies.

Question 3

SpO2 threshold for hypoxemia

Accepted Answer

Normal is 95-100%; below about 90% indicates hypoxemia. A falling SpO2 during imaging should pause the study and prompt oxygen support rather than finishing the exposure.

Question 4

Nasal cannula oxygen delivery range

Accepted Answer

1-6 L/min, giving roughly 24-44% FiO2. Higher flows dry the nasal mucosa and need humidity; the cannula is for low-flow supplemental oxygen, not for high-acuity hypoxemia.

Question 5

Hand hygiene as infection prevention

Accepted Answer

The single most effective practice. Alcohol-based rubs work for visibly clean hands; soap and water are required when spore-formers like C. diff are suspected, because alcohol does not kill spores.

Question 6

Airborne precautions (e.g., tuberculosis)

Accepted Answer

Place the patient in a negative-pressure AIIR and wear a fit-tested N95 respirator. Standard surgical masks do not filter the droplet nuclei that carry TB.

Question 7

PPE donning and doffing order

Accepted Answer

Don gown, then mask or respirator, then goggles or face shield, then gloves. Remove in reverse order to avoid contaminating exposed skin and clothing.

Question 8

Low-osmolality vs high-osmolality contrast media

Accepted Answer

Nonionic LOCM cause fewer and milder reactions than ionic HOCM. LOCM is preferred for high-risk patients even though it costs more per dose.

Question 9

Barium and suspected bowel perforation

Accepted Answer

Barium outside the lumen causes peritonitis and granulomatous reaction. Use water-soluble iodinated contrast whenever perforation is on the differential.

Question 10

Renal function check before iodinated contrast

Accepted Answer

Creatinine and eGFR screen for contrast-induced nephropathy. Abnormal renal function may require hydration, dose reduction, or switching to an alternative imaging study.

Question 11

Shellfish allergy and iodinated contrast

Accepted Answer

Shellfish allergy does not predict contrast reactions; a prior contrast reaction does. The relevant history is a previous iodinated-contrast event, not seafood intolerance.

Question 12

First-line drug for anaphylaxis

Accepted Answer

Epinephrine. It reverses bronchospasm, airway edema, and hypotension within minutes; delayed epinephrine is the strongest predictor of fatal outcome in contrast reactions.

Question 13

Vasovagal reaction management

Accepted Answer

Bradycardia with hypotension, pallor, and sweating. Place the patient supine with legs elevated to restore venous return, and monitor until symptoms resolve.

Question 14

Contrast extravasation response

Accepted Answer

Stop the injection, elevate the extremity, and apply cold or warm compresses per policy. Document volume, agent, and signs; obtain surgical consultation if compartment syndrome is suspected.

Question 15

Cardinal rules of radiation protection

Accepted Answer

Time, distance, and shielding. Distance is the most effective because intensity drops with the inverse square of distance; doubling distance cuts dose roughly fourfold.

Question 16

Gray vs sievert

Accepted Answer

Gray measures absorbed dose (energy per kilogram); sievert weights that dose by biological effectiveness. Use Gy for tissue dose, Sv for stochastic-risk reporting.

Question 17

Roentgen and its SI equivalent

Accepted Answer

Roentgen measures exposure as ionization in air; the SI equivalent is air kerma in gray. Both describe the beam before it reaches the patient, not the dose absorbed by tissue.

Question 18

Becquerel

Accepted Answer

The SI unit of radioactivity: one disintegration per second. It is used for radiopharmaceutical activity, not for x-ray tube output.

Question 19

ALARA principle

Accepted Answer

As Low As Reasonably Achievable. Dose must be minimized without sacrificing diagnostic quality; both stochastic risk and image noise trade off against mAs and kVp choices.

Question 20

Beam filtration purpose

Accepted Answer

Removes low-energy photons that add skin dose without reaching the receptor, hardening the beam and lowering patient surface dose. Tubes operating above 70 kVp require at least 2.5 mm Al equivalent total filtration.

Question 21

Collimation and scatter

Accepted Answer

Restricting the field cuts irradiated tissue volume, which lowers patient dose and scatter, improving image contrast and reducing fog.

Question 22

Pulsed vs continuous fluoroscopy

Accepted Answer

Pulsed mode uses intermittent pulses to lower total beam-on time and dose while preserving temporal resolution. Last-image hold further reduces dose by freezing the most recent frame so radiation can be stopped.

Question 23

NCRP annual occupational effective dose limit

Accepted Answer

50 mSv (5 rem) per year for whole-body exposure. The cumulative limit is 10 mSv multiplied by the worker's age in years, which often binds before the annual cap.

Question 24

Public dose limit

Accepted Answer

1 mSv (0.1 rem) per year for continuous or frequent exposure. This is far lower than the worker limit because the public includes children and has no assumed benefit from the exposure.

Question 25

Embryo/fetus gestation limit

Accepted Answer

5 mSv (0.5 rem) total over the declared pregnancy, with a monthly cap of 0.5 mSv after declaration to avoid uneven exposure across gestation.

Question 26

Occupational lens-of-eye limit

Accepted Answer

150 mSv per year per NCRP Report 116. The lens is more radiosensitive than once thought; skin and extremities carry a higher 500 mSv annual limit because their threshold is greater.

Question 27

mAs and receptor exposure relationship

Accepted Answer

Receptor exposure is directly proportional to mAs; doubling mAs doubles exposure. To halve receptor dose you halve mAs, not kVp, when exposure is the only thing being adjusted.

Question 28

kVp and image contrast

Accepted Answer

kVp controls beam penetration and is the primary controller of contrast scale. Higher kVp lengthens the gray scale, lowers contrast, and increases scatter production.

Question 29

The 15% kVp rule

Accepted Answer

A 15% increase in kVp roughly doubles receptor exposure; halve mAs to maintain exposure. It trades lower patient dose for lower-contrast, longer-scale images.

Question 30

mAs calculation (mA x time)

Accepted Answer

mAs is tube current multiplied by exposure time. 400 mA for 0.05 s equals 20 mAs; any mA/time combination giving the same mAs produces the same receptor exposure.

Question 31

Inverse square law and distance

Accepted Answer

Exposure falls with the square of distance from the source. Doubling SID quarters the exposure at the receptor, so mAs must rise roughly fourfold to maintain receptor exposure.

Question 32

Exposure Index (EI)

Accepted Answer

EI measures receptor exposure and gives feedback on technique adequacy. It is detector-specific and not directly comparable across manufacturers or receptor types.

Question 33

Deviation Index (DI)

Accepted Answer

DI = 0 means actual exposure equals the target. Positive DI is overexposure, negative is underexposure; each +1 represents about 26% more dose, so +3 roughly doubles target exposure (dose creep).

Question 34

DQE (detective quantum efficiency)

Accepted Answer

DQE is the fraction of incident exposure that becomes useful signal. Higher DQE lets you lower dose for the same image quality, which is why direct-conversion detectors outperform screen-film.

Question 35

Direct vs indirect DR conversion

Accepted Answer

Direct conversion uses a-Se photoconductor to turn x-rays straight into charge. Indirect uses a scintillator to make light first, then a photodiode; the light step slightly blurs the signal.

Question 36

Window width vs window level

Accepted Answer

Window width sets displayed contrast; window level sets brightness. Adjusting width narrows the visible gray range in the displayed image, not the captured data.

Question 37

Flat-field calibration purpose

Accepted Answer

Maps and interpolates defective pixels so they do not appear as artifacts. It is performed periodically and after detector service to keep the receptor uniform.

Question 38

kVp accuracy QC requirement

Accepted Answer

Selected kVp must be within about +/-5% of actual output. Reproducibility requires repeated identical exposures to vary by no more than 5% in output.

Question 39

Quantum mottle

Accepted Answer

Speckled noise from too few photons reaching the receptor (low mAs). It is a statistical, not equipment, artifact; fix it by raising mAs, not by post-processing.

Question 40

Grid cutoff

Accepted Answer

Absorption of useful primary beam by the grid, seen as density loss. Off-center, off-level, off-focus, or upside-down focused grids all cause characteristic cutoff patterns.

Question 41

Moire (aliasing) artifact

Accepted Answer

Occurs when a stationary grid's line frequency interferes with the CR detector's sampling frequency, producing wavy lines. Use a moving grid or a higher-frequency stationary grid to avoid it.

Question 42

Shape distortion

Accepted Answer

Misalignment of tube, part, and image receptor planes distorts anatomy. Magnification distortion grows with object-to-image distance and shrinks with source-to-image distance.

Question 43

PA chest SID and rationale

Accepted Answer

The standard 72-inch (180 cm) SID minimizes cardiac magnification; shorter distances exaggerate the heart shadow and can falsely suggest cardiomegaly.

Question 44

PA chest inspiration benchmark

Accepted Answer

A minimum of 10 posterior ribs visible above the diaphragm confirms full inspiration. Fewer ribs suggest poor inspiration or rotation rather than a true lung problem.

Question 45

Lateral decubitus for pleural effusion

Accepted Answer

Place the affected (suspect-fluid) side down. Free fluid layers along the dependent lateral chest wall, where it becomes visible against the air-filled lung.

Question 46

Lateral decubitus for pneumothorax

Accepted Answer

Place the affected (suspect-air) side up. Free air rises to the nondependent chest wall, where a small pneumothorax is easier to see than on a supine image.

Question 47

AP lordotic (Lindblom) projection

Accepted Answer

Projects the clavicles above the lung apices so the apices are seen unobscured. Use it when apical pathology is suspected and routine PA visualization is poor.

Question 48

PA chest central ray centering

Accepted Answer

Perpendicular to T7, level with the inferior scapular angle. Centering too high cuts off the costophrenic angles; too low cuts the apices.

Question 49

KUB (AP supine abdomen) centering

Accepted Answer

Center at the iliac crests to include kidneys through bladder. An upright abdomen is centered about 2 inches above the crests to capture the diaphragm and any free air.

Question 50

Trauma cross-table lateral cervical spine

Accepted Answer

Taken first and must show all seven cervical vertebrae including C7-T1. Inadequate visualization of C7-T1 requires traction, a swimmer's projection, or CT rather than a repeat blind exposure.

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