"Mystery Image"

You guys,
I'm still in prerequesites so I haven't seen enough to take an educated guess. I can however make a few observations.
The vertebral cavity is clearly seen in the medial inferior portion. That would mean the sternum would be medial superior. that would place the heart in the left mediastinum, so that looks like a good landmark also. The sternum looks out of place posteriorly(pectus excavatum?) I've only seen a few CTs but I think it should be less concave.
There are (what I think) anomalies lateral to the thoracic vertebra and posterior to where I think the pericardium would be(A&P I, cut me some slack).
I don't know what this could be, but I am confident that that's what I'm looking at.
Does anyone agree?...............This has got me all sidetracked. what fun!!
Come on BSNs....Give me a reason to want to be one.
Brad
Columbia, MD
Great post!!

that was an xray of the technicians lunch

Okay....I'm with RNed on this one.
Her description of the landmarks are right on.
I thought at first glance that it was a collection of three consecutive "slices" getting closer/progressing toward the heart. I will get back to you if I figure out anything more? LOL
Lisa

Okay, I'll try my guess at this. I think the first image (upper left) is the heart in systole- both ventricles fully contracted. Remember, dark color on an x-ray (and a CT scan) would be air, so the 2 dark shadows in the center heart area of the picture may be either the way the CT scan sees the valve juat as it is moving, or else it's the esophagus and trachea (my guess is it is the former vs. the later). The large dark fields are the nice, clear lungs, with the white "dots" being some cross sections of the pulmonary arteries and clearly visible pulmonary vasculature. Second shot (upper right) is probably either atrial contraction or beginning diastole, with the lower picture being end diastole- just before the ventricles contract.The fuzzyness is probably due to heart movement during the CT. I'm not sure on CT scans, but whenever I have time and my patients' x-rays are laying around, I try to look at them and figure out what I'm looking at. This sharpens my skills I think. But I really don't see that many CTs in my work area.

Another interesting fact is that when you read a CT scan like this, you must remember you are looking at the body from the feet up, looking towards the head.

My guess would be some sort of neoplastic disease. It would be a CT of the chest from my rather uneducated guess. So, I'd say it is either a lung CA, a metastatic CA or lymphoma. That would be my guess, anyway.

This is clearly a CT of the shest looking for the underneath........upward. There is no oral contrast, which rules out this being a GI issue. There is clearly IV contrast. Looking at the pcture...that is clearly the heart, but the wrong angle if you are trying to r/o a disection. The heart is normal in size.........and you actually can Identify the aorta on the bottom film.....normal in diamater and appearance. As with Kellyandtheboys said.......metastatic disease is one possibility. Why? Because malignant tumors are highly vascular.....and if it was primary lung Can you would see way more than you do. Lymphoma is a possiblity.....unfortunately don't have CEA's, PSA's, alfa fetal proetins, among a good history to know for sure. The one thing that does have me thinking of another possibility, is the vascualr tracking. This does have the possiblity of being an acute problem. In the last couple years, VQ scans (which this is not) have taken a dive, and now CT's of the chest are used to r/o PE's. Clearly in some vessels the contrast flows and fades out which is normal. However, in the vessels where the contrast builds up........it makes me think of an obstruction....complete in some areas and, incomplete in others. Multiple PE's are rare.....but I have seen them.

In the end I am gonna have to say it like a radiologist. Metistatic disease vs multiple PE's......suggest biopsy or follow up CT for changes.


me

What did FES stand for?