If a patient has a thicker body part being imaged, what adjustment is generally necessary?

When imaging a patient with a thicker body part, increasing the kilovoltage is generally necessary. This adjustment is important because thicker body parts attenuate the x-ray beam more than thinner parts. By increasing the kilovoltage, you enhance the penetration power of the x-rays, which allows more of the x-ray beam to pass through the tissue and reach the detector.

Higher kilovoltage settings result in more energetic x-rays that are better able to penetrate dense tissues, thereby producing a better-quality image with improved contrast and detail. This adjustment helps to ensure that the resulting image is neither underexposed nor overexposed, which can occur if the kilovoltage remains unchanged in the presence of increased tissue density.

In contrast, decreasing kilovoltage would lead to insufficient penetration, resulting in a dark image that lacks detail due to excessive absorption by the denser areas. Similarly, no adjustment or changing the projection angle would not adequately address the issue of penetration in thicker body parts. Hence, increasing kilovoltage is the proper response to accommodate the increased thickness in the area being examined.