Ap Chest X Ray

A chest radiograph called a chest x ray cxr or chest film is a projection radiograph of the chest used to diagnose conditions affecting the chest its contents and nearby structures. Left in the supine ap anteriorposterior position the x ray tube is 40 inches from the patient.

How To Read Chest X Rays International Emergency Medicine

Chest x rays can also reveal fluid in or around your lungs or air surrounding a lung.

Ap chest x ray. This particular projection is often used frequently to aid diagnosis of acute and chronic conditions in intensive care units and wards. The heart appears enlarged a combination of ap magnification and underinflation. An x ray picture in which the beams pass from front to back anteroposterior.

The heart being an anterior structure within the chest is magnified by an ap view. Chest x rays produce images of your heart lungs blood vessels airways and the bones of your chest and spine. This leads to a more divergent beam to cover the same anatomical field.

Magnification is exaggerated further by the shorter distance between the x ray source and the patient often required when acquiring an ap image. The erect anteroposterior chest view is an alternative to the pa view when the patient is too unwell to tolerate standing or leaving the bed 1. Whenever possible the patient should be imaged in an upright pa position.

The chest x ray is one of the most common imaging tests performed in clinical practice typically for cough shortness of breath chest pain chest wall trauma and assessment for occult disease. Chest radiographs are the most common film taken in medicine. As opposed to a pa posteroanterior film in which the rays pass through the body from back to front.

Ap v pa heart size. The ap shows magnification of the heart and widening of the mediastinum. Like all methods of radiography chest radiography employs ionizing radiation in the form of x rays to generate images of the chest.

As opposed to a pa posteroanterior film in which the rays pass through the body from back to front. The superior mediastinum appears widened due to ap magnification. If you go to your doctor or the emergency room with chest pain a chest injury or shortness of breath you will typically get a chest x ray.

The ap view examines the lungs bony thoracic cavity mediastinum and great vessels. There appears to be a bilateral interstitial infiltrate also due to underinflation. These symptoms could be the result of the following conditions which a chest x ray can detect.

This is a pa film on the left compared with a ap supine film on the right. Broken ribs emphysema a long term progressive lung condition that causes breathing difficulties heart failure lung cancer pneumonia pneumothorax a collection of air in the space between your lungs and.

Chest Ap Erect View Radiology Reference Article Radiopaedia Org