Interpretation of chest radiographs

Cheap, readily available, and loaded with information: chest x ray scans are excellent diagnostic tools-as long as you know how to interpret them. The evidence, unfortunately, points to the contrary. A study of senior students at a US medical school, in which five chest x ray films were presented (pneumothorax, pneumonia, pleural effusion, wide mediastinum, and pneumoperitoneum) showed that the students made the correct diagnosis only 60% of the time.

A solid introduction is given by Harvard at http://brighamrad.harvard.edu/education/online/clerk_2/read.html. This learning module includes the steps involved …