Chest X-Rays
How to read a chest X-ray:

To become expert in reading x-rays, you need to go through a radiology residency. For our purposes as students doing clerkships, it's enough to be thorough, organized, and to recognize obvious findings. I don't have a good mnemonic to keep the following list in my head, but the rule of thumb is to go from general and boring to specific and interesting.

  1. CHECK THE NAME AND DATE!!!
  2. Good study? (penetration, rotation, completeness)
  3. Check bony structures
  4. Soft tissue
  5. Heart size, location
  6. Lung fields
  7. Tracheal deviation
  8. Diaphragms
  9. Pneumothorax
  10. Fissures
  11. Consolidation
  12. Infiltrate