Patient-Friendly Summary of the ACR  Appropriateness Criteria Routine Chest Radiography

Getting a chest x-ray before going into the hospital for an operation or for something routine is not needed unless a patient has heart or lung disease or symptoms of a heart or lung condition. The x-ray does not add information that would change treatment after getting information about the patient ’s medical history and symptoms and performing the physical examination. Chest x-rays should not be used routinely for the evaluation of patients with normal high blood pressure unless some type of heart disease is suspected.

Source: Journal of the American College of Radiology : JACR - February 3, 2018 Category: Radiology Authors: Casey Quinlan Tags: Appropriate use criteria Source Type: research