Black and White

Today as I was Dad's transcriptionist for the business I saw an X-ray that looked like its owner had inhaled a ton of smoke. The report was "Stable Fibrosis" since I figured I actually saw this one I pointed at the smoke and asked him if that was the fibrosis.

"Nope." He said, "That's the hilum. The hilum is always busy."

Later, he read one X-ray as "Pleural disease." Since I knew where pleural thickening always happened and I didn't see anything, I asked him where it was. He pointed to a little white stripe in the area. I'd say whatever it was, it couldn't be that bad. It was puny.

Later, he read "Biapical scarring." Now I was absolutely sure that "Biapical" was the top of both lungs, but they both looked perfectly healthy. I asked him again where the abnormality was. He pointed at two little stripes that were immediately next to the collar bone.

Dad said the key to reading X-rays is to know which areas are supposed to be black and which ones are supposed to be white. I don't get it.