Mnemonic for Chest X-ray interpretation regions
The main regions where a chest X-ray may identify problems may be summarized as ABCDEF by their first letters:
- Airways and hilar Adenopathy
- Breast shadows
- Bones, e.g. rib fractures and lytic bone lesions
- Cardiac silhoutte, detecting cardiac enlargement and contours
- Costophrenic angles, including pleural effusions
- Diaphragm, e.g. evidence of free air under it
- Edges, e.g. apices for fibrosis, pneumothorax, pleural thickening or plaques
- Extrathoracic tissues
- Fields (lung parenchyma), being evidence of alveolar filling and edema
