Chest Radiograph Approach to Acquired Cardiac Disease

A lot of radiologists don’t evaluate cardiac disease from a radiographic point of view. Instead, it is often deferred to more expensive and invasive exams.  We may have forgotten, or just never were taught, how much physiological information is offered from the anatomy, pulmonary vessels, and chamber contours on the PA and Lateral radiographs. 

Dr. Marc Gosselin, from Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine and Vision Radiology, is back with another imaging mastery course on the power of a chest radiograph, which is essentially a snapshot of the patient’s cardiopulmonary status.

This is a challenging topic to tackle, but Dr. Gosselin breaks it down with real world experience and succinct summaries so the busy radiologist feels ready to elevate their reading competencies of chest radiographs regarding cardiac diseases. 

Expand and fortify your cardiopulmonary terminology by learning alternatives to commonly used vague words and phrases like aortic knob, ‘plump vessels’, cardiomegaly, pulmonary vascular markings, and pulmonary vascular congestion. Moving beyond these vague words into more specific terms will help radiologists drill down on readings, which best reflect the anatomy and physiology of a patient.   

Challenge yourself with this radiology course and then quiz yourself with Dr. Gosselin’s cardiac radiographic formative self-assessment session to reinforce the various principles covered! 

 What topics are covered? 

• Cardiac anatomy
• Evaluation of heart/chamber size on posteroanterior (PA) chest view, lateral view and anteroposterior chest view
• Reviewing the subtle radiographic morphologic or physiologic clues
• Small heart diseases and large heart diseases approach 
• Vascular Pedicle as a reflection of intravascular volume
• The myths regarding Cephalization
• Radiographic difference between cephalization and shunt vascularity
• Distinguishing cardiomyopathy versus pericardial effusion with a globally enlarged cardiac silhouette
• Clues to deduce which valve is abnormal or where the septal defect exists in the setting of unequal cardiac chamber dilation
• Implications of cardiac calcifications 
• Various cardiac medical devices

Check out these related Radiology CME courses:

• Cardiopulmonary Imaging
• Cardiopulmonary Imaging – Pattern Recognition
• Consolidation and Ground Glass
• Fundamentals of Cardiac MRI
• Cardiac MRI of Non-Ischemic Cardiomyopathy