Ancillary findings on CT pulmonary angiograms and abnormalities on chest radiographs in patients in whom pulmonary embolism was excluded.

To determine whether chest radiographs identify some abnormalities not shown as ancillary findings on computed tomography(CT) pulmonary angiograms of patients in whom pulmonary embolism (PE) was excluded. This was a retrospective study of reports of negative 64-detector CT pulmonary angiograms and chest radiographs. Among 332 patients with no PE, pulmonary parenchymal disease was shown in 60 (18%) only on standard chest radiographs, and pleural or pericardial disease was shown in 17 (5%) only on chest radiographs. Skeletal abnormalities were reported more frequently on standard chest radiographs, lymph nodes more frequently on CT angiograms. Some abnormalities on chest radiographs of patients in whom PE is excluded may not be described as ancillary findings on CT pulmonary angiograms. This suggests a need for ancillary findings on CT pulmonary angiograms to be described systematically. At present, however, plain chest radiographs in some patients show ancillary findings not reported on CT angiograms. [corrected].