0:00

Indications of shortness of breath. Things to consider are pulmonary edema,

0:05

emboli, effusion, pneumonia, and certainly during the time of pandemic would

0:10

include Covid 19, pneumo thoraxes, asthma, pericardial effusion or even

0:15

COPD exacerbations. Because you're thinking about different types of images

0:19

that you're going to see. Again, PA And lateral chest radiographs are going

0:23

to be very, very common and are fantastic screening tools, not every single

0:28

common cause is gonna be seen the same way or the same degree

0:32

of certainty on a radiograph. Usually the CT is much more helpful for

0:37

further characterizing when appropriate. There may be instances where lateral

0:41

decubitus for pneumothorax might be helpful if you're not really sure what

0:45

you're seeing just on a supine or if the patient can't sit upright. Again,

0:50

CT chest with contrast or CTPA for pulmonary arteriogram, maybe something

0:58

that you consider in the right, clinical context. EKG, while not necessarily

1:03

something that we order or interpret is something that we may ask for

1:08

our clinicians to at least consider to help put things together.

1:10

So as you think about entities like asthma or COPD, chest radiographs may

1:16

not always be able to diagnose them, but they can rule out other

1:20

sorts of things. If you've got a patient who's got a COPD

1:24

history or an asthma history, the radiographs are helpful because it may

1:28

show you very clearly that there's a focal lobar consolidation. Hey,

1:32

this is pneumonia, or in the right context, this is the patient who has

1:35

now been in an accident who happens to have a history of asthma

1:39

or COPD, has had chest trauma, and hey, this is a contusion. So

1:43

there are lots of things that can be helpful, but including and excluding,

1:47

so consider the most efficient way to approach things, keeping in mind that

1:51

again, the PA lateral chest, very, very good screening tool, and the CT

1:55

is helpful for the characterization.