The Silhouette Sign
If part of the lung is radiodense (alveolar pattern, consolidated, water density, airless), it can affect our ability to see adjacent structures. We can use these changes to help us…
CARDIOVASCULAR IMAGING
The Normal Chest X-Ray: Reading Like the Pros
The keys to reading x-rays well are a good understanding of normal anatomy and an orderly search pattern. This chapter reacquaints you with the normal anatomy and helps you develop…
Understanding the Mediastinum
The mediastinum is the area between the right and left lungs, bounded by the medial-parietal pleura. Mediastinal diseases can be difficult to detect on chest x-ray because most diseases are…
The Radiographic Examination: The Basics
The chest x-ray and computed tomography (CT) are part of every physician’s practice. You should have a basic understanding of the anatomy and pathologic findings visible on these images. In…
Cross-Sectional Imaging Techniques
Three relatively recent imaging techniques, computed tomography (CT), ultrasound (US), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), have greatly improved thoracic imaging. In all conventional x-ray techniques, the x-ray beam passes through…
Acquired valvular heart disease
Abstract Valvular heart disease affects more than 100 million people worldwide and represents a growing problem because of the high incidence of rheumatic heart disease in developing countries and the…
Cardiomyopathy
Abstract Cardiomyopathy encompasses a diverse yet often overlapping spectrum of pathologies and phenotypes. This chapter reviews and discusses the clinical applications of the cardiac imaging modalities to the assessment, diagnosis,…
Systemic diseases
Abstract Cardiac imaging is very important for diagnosis, management, and risk stratification of systemic diseases involving the heart such as arterial systemic hypertension, diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome, autoimmune connective…
Myocarditis
Abstract This chapter describes diagnostic imaging for myocarditis. Various imaging modalities are discussed, comparing their specific advantages and disadvantages. For imaging acute myocarditis, cardiac magnetic resonance offers the greatest potential—compared…
Cardiac tumours
Abstract The differential diagnosis for a cardiac mass is broad, and includes thrombus, normal anatomical variants, metastases, and a variety of primary cardiac tumours. Although cardiac tumours are rare, they…
