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Best Evidence Topic reports
BET 1 IS ULTRASOUND OR CHEST X RAY BEST FOR THE DIAGNOSIS OF PNEUMOTHORAX IN THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT?
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Report by: Walid Alsalim, Consultant Emergency Medicine
Search checked by: David Lewis, Consultant Emergency Medicine
Institution: The Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust, Ipswich, UK
A short-cut review was carried out to establish whether magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a useful investigative tool in the diagnosis of suspected appendicitis in pregnant women. A total of 29 citations was reviewed, of which six partly answered the three-part question. The clinical bottom line is that emergency department (ED) transthoracic ultrasound is better than plain x ray in the diagnosis of pneumothorax in the supine patient. Computed tomography (CT) thorax is the gold standard for …