2. Before reading a chest X-ray
• Demographics data
– Check the patient name
– Age
– Patient identification number
– Check the date on which the chest X-ray was taken
11. How to differentiate AP and PA view
PA AP
• Medial end of clavicle
overlies posterior end of 4th
rib. – Horizontal
• Medial border of scapula –
Out of lung field
• Vertebral bodies – Inverted
V shape
• Heart – well defined
borders
• Clavicles are projected
above the ribs. – Oblique
• Scapula overlies the lung
field
• Vertebral bodies –
Rectangle shape
• Heart – Enlarged and ill
defined borders
21. • Different tissues in our body absorb X-rays at
different extents:
– Bone- high absorption (white)
– Soft tissue - somewhere in the middle absorption
(grey)
– Fat – (Dark grey)
– Air- low absorption (black)
22. • Look at the Bones
• Soft tissue
• Look at any artifacts
• Look at the costophrenic and cardiophrenic
angles
• Look at the diaphragms
• Look at the borders of lung field
23. • Mediastinum
– Look at the trachea
– Look at the heart borders
• Look at the hilum
• Look at the lung fields (lung parenchyma )