Master the CT Chest

A CT chest contains far more information than a plain film, which is exactly why it is easy to read badly. This course builds cross-sectional reading from the anatomy upwards, so that you can work through a study systematically instead of scrolling until something catches your eye.

What the course covers

• Cross-sectional anatomy — orienting yourself on axial slices, following the vessels and airways, and recognising the mediastinal compartments.
• Windows — why the same slice must be read on lung, mediastinal and bone windows, and what each one is capable of hiding.
• Contrast — when it is needed, when it is not, timing for vascular studies, and reading a CT pulmonary angiogram.
• Lung parenchyma — nodules and how size and features drive follow-up, consolidation, ground-glass change, emphysema, and interstitial patterns.
• The pleura and chest wall — effusion versus thickening, empyema, pneumothorax that is invisible on the plain film, and rib and sternal injury.
• Mediastinum and great vessels — lymph node stations, mediastinal masses, and the appearance of aortic aneurysm and dissection.
• Surgical relevance — how CT findings change operative planning: resectability, the extent of resection, and anatomical surprises worth knowing before the incision.

Who it is for

Residents and practising clinicians in surgery, chest medicine, oncology, emergency medicine and critical care who need to interpret CT chest studies themselves, and students who already read plain films competently.

Format

Bilingual (Arabic and English), taught at intermediate level. It assumes you can read a chest X-ray and builds from there, working through full studies rather than isolated images.

This course supports professional education. It does not replace a formal radiology report, and completing it does not qualify anyone to report imaging independently.