Chest Radiography Today and Its Remaining Indications
Today, chest radiography remains the cornerstone for the diagnosis of many pulmonary diseases but it has received less attention during the past several years due to the explosion of new imaging techniques. However, chest radiography has many advantages.
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Chest Radiography Today and Its Remaining Indications Emmanuel E. Coche
Contents
Abstract
1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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1.2 Main Indications of Chest Radiography . . . . . . . 1.2.1 Pneumonia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.2 The Patient in Intensive Care Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.3 Position of Catheters and Thoracic Devices . . . . . . 1.2.4 The Patient in the Emergency Room . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.5 The Patient’s Follow-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.6 Clinical Situations in Which Chest Radiography Has Been Abandoned or Its Role Discussed . . . . . .
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1.3 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
E.E. Coche Department of Medical Imaging, Cliniques Universitaires St-Luc, Avenue Hippocrate, 10, 1200, Brussels, Belgium e-mail: [email protected]
›› Today, chest radiography remains the corner-
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stone for the diagnosis of many pulmonary diseases but it has received less attention during the past several years due to the explosion of new imaging techniques. However, chest radiography has many advantages. It offers simplicity, low cost, low radiation, large amounts of information, and is widely available throughout the world. In this chapter, the remaining indications for the use of chest radiography in adults will be discussed in the context of MDCT. In pneumonia, chest radiography plays a pivotal role in the initial evaluation and follow-up of patients. In immunocompromised patients, chest radiography should be considered as a screening test and will often be followed by MDCT. In the intensive care unit (ICU), chest radiography can be easily performed to detect malposition of medical devices, but difficult cases still will be assessed by MDCT. In the emergency room, chest radiography is the recommended initial imaging study for the patient, and its results will often initiate additional imaging examinations such as MDCT. Chest radiography is also the most commonly used imaging tool for follow-up of benign conditions such as pneumothorax, pneumonia, pleural effusion. Its role in the follow-up of malignant conditions is less obvious. At the end of the chapter, the role of chest radiography in lung cancer screening, assessment of preoperative patients, and daily follow-up will be discussed.
E.E. Coche et al. (eds.), Comparative Interpretation of CT and Standard Radiography of the Chest, Medical Radiology, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-79942-9_1, © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011
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E.E. Coche
1.1 Introduction Despite continuous advances in cross-sectional imaging, chest radiography remains the cornerstone for the diagnosis of many pulmonary diseases and the most commonly performed diagnostic imaging test in western countries and probably throughout the world. This imaging modality is responsible for approximately 30–40% of all
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