Purpose:

Introduction:

This page is designed to simulate for medical students as closely as possible what it is like to be a Radiologist. I envy my fellow clerkship directors because their rotations allow students to function as surgeons, pediatricians etc. and really get a feel for that specialty. Not so with Radiology. Because I am a chest Radiologist, the site includes mainly chest cases and a handful of Neuroradiology cases, but in the future, I hope that we can include other imaging subspecialties.

Most of our day is structured around interpreting images that appear on worklists on our workstations. A worklist may, for example, include all of the head CT scans obtained in the emergency department. In the chest division, we read primarily portable chext X-rays (pCXRs), two view (PA and lateral) chest X-rays (CXRs) and chest CT scans and in general, that is how we organize our worklists. At Emory, we also read some cardiac CT scans, most commonly coronary artery CT angiograms and Cardiac MRIs. The Emory Neuroradiologists have kindly provided some head CT cases. Before we get to the six worklists below, I need to give you a little more information.

The Radiology Report:

The “tangible” result of our image interpretation is the radiographic report, an example of a (nearly) normal portable CXR report is here, a normal PA and Lateral CXR report is here, a normal Chest CT report is here, a normal Coronary CTA report is here, a normal Cardiac MRI report is here and a normal head CT report is here. If you want to learn more about the Radiology report, click here.

Your Job:

Your job will be to look at 8 pCXR cases, 8 CXR cases, 8 chest CT, 8 cardiac/coronary CT, 4 cardiac MRI cases and 10 Neuroimaging cases (mainly head CTs) in the “worklists” below and generate a radiographic report based on what you see. Some of the cases will be easy, some will be hard, but just try your best and use the resources that I have linked to below and in the answers I posted. Before you get started, you can review how to read a CXR here and here. Learning how to read a chest CT can take a lifetime to learn, but a quick and dirty guide is here and a CT anatomy review can be found here. Vital background material for reading a coronary CT scan is here. The coronary CT pdf contains scrollable movies: to make full use of the pdf, you will need to download it to your computer and open it in Adobe acrobat. That goes double for you Mac users! I have a super quick and dirty introduction to cardiac MRI here, but since I do not read cardiac MRIs, it is very crude. An approach to the head CT is here. If the resources above are too sparse for you, the University of Virginia has a series of online tutorials covering the plain chest radiograph, ICU chest films, high resolution chest CT, cardiac MRI and head CT. There is even a medical specialty aptitude test. The first case in each worklist is normal or nearly normal, so take a good look at those. One last thing: Claripacs has a goldmine of information and cases located here. Good luck and have fun, especially with the “Draw it to learn it!” drawing lessons scattered throughout the cases!

pCXR Worklist:

Cases come up as Google slides, click view –> present for full screen.

Case # 1 Image(s)
Case #1 Report Template
Case # 1 Answer
Case # 2 Image(s)
Case # 2 Report Template
Case # 2 Answer
Case # 3 Image(s)
Case # 3 Report Template
Case # 3 Answer
Draw it to learn it! Reinforce the lesson from Case # 3 by drawing!
Case # 4 Image(s)
Case # 4 Report Template
Case # 4 Answer
Case # 5 Image(s)
Case # 5 Report Template
Case # 5 Answer
Draw it to learn it! Reinforce the lesson from Case # 5 by drawing!
Case # 6 Image(s)
Case # 6 Report Template
Case # 6 Answer
Draw it to learn it! Reinforce the lesson from Case # 6 by drawing!
Case # 7 Image(s)
Case # 7 Template
Case # 7 Answer
Case # 8 Image(s)
Case # 8 Template
Case # 8 Answer
A Jotform summary quiz for the pCXR cases can be found here.
The same pCXR summary quiz as a Google form can be found here.

CXR Worklist:

Cases come up as Google slides, click view –> present for full screen.

Chest CT Scan Worklist:

After loading the images in Claripacs, you can change the windows by pressing the numbers on your keyboard: 1→ Soft tissue/Mediastinal windows, 2→ Lung windows, 3→ Bone windows. Click here to learn more about windows/levels.

Can’t get enough chest imaging?! Click here to go to another web site with more chest radiology!

Cardiac/Coronary CT Scan Worklist:

To best see the coronary arteries, rewindow the images by pressing the number 3 on your keyboard after loading the Claripacs images.

Cardiac MRI Worklist:

If you have not already done so (and you probably haven’t), read me first!

Case # 1 Images (Scrollable)
Case # 1 as a Movie Loop (Desktop)
Case # 1 as a Movie Loop (Mobile)
Case # 1 Report Template
Case # 1 Answer
Case # 2 Images (Scrollable)
Case # 2 as a Movie Loop (Desktop)
Case # 2 as a Movie Loop (Mobile)
Case # 2 Report Template
Case # 2 Answer
Draw it to learn it! Reinforce the lesson from Case # 2 by drawing!
Case # 3 Images (Scrollable)
Case # 3 as a Movie Loop (Desktop)
Case # 3 as a Movie Loop (Mobile)
Case # 3 Report Template
Case # 3 Answer
Case # 4 Images (Scrollable)
Case # 4 as a Movie Loop (Desktop)
Case # 4 as a Movie Loop (Mobile)
Case # 4 Report Template
Case # 4 Answer
A summary quiz for the Cardiac MRI cases can be found here.
If you want some plain film cardiac cases, a collection of cases stolen from Radiopaedia can be found here, with links to the answers. The same cases are also available here as a Kahoot! quiz.

Neuroimaging Worklist:

After opening the images in Claripacs, you can press the number 3 on your keyboard to view the CT images using bone windows. To view CT brain windows, press the number 4 on your keyboard.

Can’t get enough Neuroradiology?! Click here to become an expert in learning how to evaluate a CT scan for stroke. Click here for a free online MRI brain atlas. Click here and here to access some more great on-line modules and more cases! Click here if you want to learn temporal bone anatomy.

Want more quick cases? Try this Dartmouth website.

Want to learn abdominal imaging? Try this University of Wisconsin website.

Bored?! Want to play a Kahoot!?

Then tap here.