The Lateral View in Lung Scanning as an Aid in Differential Diagnosis

¹ Assistant Professor of Radiology and Director of Radioisotopes, Indiana University Medical Center

Observations made on patients who had lung scans performed with MAA show that attention to technical detail, especially reduction of contrast enhancement and use of a proper light collimator, will produce a more readily interpretable scan. The lateral view is necessary to obtain proper anatomic information and can give information that is not available on the posterior view. Appropriately recorded data should be used with the physiologic principle that anything which reduces regional ventilation will correspondingly reduce regional pulmonary artery blood flow. This will lead to fewer errors in interpretation of the lung scan as illustrated by the reported cases.