Is it worth taking radiographs on both sides of a horse chest?

VRU 63(5): 518-529

Study: The study is a retrospective, single center, observational study that compares unilateral and bilateral thoracic radiographic projections for the detection of pulmonary lesions in a group of horses. The horses were classified as having pneumonia, inflammatory or diffuse pulmonary disease, and pulmonary masses based on their clinical diagnosis.

Methods: The study included 167 adults and foals with bilateral thoracic radiographs. Right-to-left and left-to-right projections were anonymized and independently interpreted by a radiologist blinded to the clinical diagnosis. Scores were attributed for each pattern/lesion and each quadrant. Agreement between scores from each projection was evaluated with Bland–Altman plots.

Results: The results showed that bilateral projections increased the probability of identifying pulmonary lesions in horses with pneumonia or neoplasia. However, in horses with inflammatory or diffuse disease, bilateral thoracic radiography provided no additional benefit.

Conclusion: The study concludes that acquiring contralateral thoracic radiographic views for horses with suspected pulmonary disease such as pneumonia or neoplasia is supported. For cases suspected of pneumonia and with financial limitations, the authors recommend adding at least one contralateral caudoventral projection since discordances were more frequent at this level for patterns seen with pneumonia. The authors did not observe additional benefit of bilateral thoracic radiographs in horses with inflammatory or diffuse pulmonary disease in their datasets.

Right-left (A) and left-right (B) lateral projections of a 15-year-old horse diagnosed with pneumonia. On the right-left lateral projection, a mild alveolar pattern consistent with pneumonia was identified in the caudoventral quadrant (A) but not on the contralateral projection (B) (CR30-X 5175/100, AGFA Healthcare NV, Peissenberg, Germany; focal spot-film distance of 150 cm)

How did we do?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Disclaimer: The summary generated in this email was created by an AI large language model. Therefore errors may occur. Reading the article is the best way to understand the scholarly work. The figure presented here remains the property of the publisher or author and subject to the applicable copyright agreement. It is reproduced here as an educational work. If you have any questions or concerns about the work presented here, reply to this email.