You are performing an exam on a patient with highly attenuating tissue. Which solution would be most likely to improve penetration through the tissue?

• A. decrease dynamic range
• B. decrease near-field TGC
• C. choose a lower frequency transducer
• D. increase the scan line density

Answer: (C)

Lower frequency ultrasound penetrates deeper because attenuation rises with frequency. In tissues that strongly attenuate the beam, using a lower frequency transducer reduces the loss of signal with depth, letting you visualize deeper structures even though image resolution is sacrificed somewhat. The other adjustments change image brightness or resolution, not the physics of deep penetration: lowering dynamic range affects contrast, not depth; tweaking near-field gain alters brightness near the surface rather than how far the beam can travel; increasing scan line density improves detail but doesn’t increase penetration.