As hospital care for critically ill patients and the number of intensive care beds increase, portable chest examinations are becoming more important. More portable chest radiographic examinations are performed each year, and in many hospitals, the percentage of portable chest examinations is 40% to 50% of all chest examinations. The importance of an optimal portable chest radiograph has been recognized for a long time, but it is a difficult examination to optimize. The major imaging problems with portable chest radiography are: (1) scattered radiation, (2) inability of x-ray, film to capture all of the information, and (3) inability to control the film density when there is slight overexposure or underexposure. The development of computed radiography (CR) is an improvement that is a possible solution to some of the limitations of portable chest radiography because it optimizes the film density and contrast by using computer image processing.The purpose of this lesson is to provide radiologists in hospitals of all sizes with knowledge applicable to the techniques of optimal portable chest radiography. Furthermore, radiologists should know about the potential advantages of the new technology of computed radiography, as well as how to optimize conventional film portable chest radiography.
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