Difference Between Chest X-ray and Lung CT

The basic principle of chest X-ray and chest CT is to obtain imaging data using X-ray irradiation. However, chest X-ray is normally an overlapping image, which can be an anteroposterior overlapping or a lateral overlapping, while chest CT is a tomographic scan. Therefore, chest X-ray has limitations in clinical diagnosis of some diseases, such as pulmonary nodules, pulmonary interstitial disease and bronchiectasis, which are easily missed on chest X-ray. These conditions normally require chest CT examination. However, compared with chest ct, chest radiograph radiation is relatively small, sometimes can be used as a preliminary screening, even for pneumothorax this kind of situation, in most cases, simple application of chest radiograph can be, and do not need routine chest ct examination.