
If you do this, you will understand why radiologists need to be given more clinical information than they often get, and why they need to compare and contrast not only serial CT scans, but also may need to correlate ALL scans that were done, whether they were CT, Ultrasound, MRI, or PET.  A common situation is the ambiguity created when the MRI scan interpreter is not given the previous week's CT scan.  You then get ONE radiologist seeing a lesion, and the other missing it.  

It is actually not terribly difficult to understand X-rays and Scans.  <b>First, you need some knowledge of anatomy.</b>  It doesn't have to be comprehensive knowledge, but you should know the location, appearance and function of major organs in basic terms.  Like: your liver is on your right side, just below the diaphragm.  The spleen is on the left side, just below the diaphragm.  The stomach is in the middle, just below the diaphragm.  The gall bladder is tucked under the liver.  This is not major genius work, and will help you immeasurably in understanding and feeling comfortable with your body.

There are online anatomy sites that can help, one of which is: 
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Also useful: GRAY'S Anatomy of the Human Body (20th edition) featuring 1,247 vibrant engravings from the classic 1918 publication.  &&url

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Two online medical dictionaries. The first one gives terms in the
language(s) of your choice.

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<b>Secondly, you need to know how the dark and light parts of the scan are interpreted.  For X-rays and CT scans, a dark color means that radiation reached the film/detector array, and a white color means that the radiation was blocked on its way through the body.</b>   The more dense the tissue, the more it will block the radiation.  So bones would be white, and lungs [which are mostly air] would be dark, and other tissues would be shades of grey, darker for less dense tissue, lighter for more dense tissue.  

<b>If contrast is used,<b> this is a very dense liquid injected into a vein, which then makes blood and organs which are highly vascular, much more dense.  LMS and many cancer tumors are highly vascular, and they will "light up", become more white [radio-opaque] than surrounding tissue, because of the presence of increased amount of blood-borne-contrast.  The picture of the tumor's increased blood supply is called a "tumor blush".

<b>If you are looking at a bone isotope scan, or a PET scan,<b> these are scans where radioisotopes are taken up preferentially in high grade cancers or inflammations.  So the films will show DARK spots where the isotope was taken up.  

None of this is difficult.  Some of it is amazing.  Most of it is rewarding.  Take every chance to ask radiologists and your doctors to explain the scans to you.  Take a look at libraries and bookstores and see if there is a simple book explaining how to read X-rays.  You can do this.  

Always go over each reading either with the radiologist or your oncologist.  Ask if you have questions.  You will learn.  <b>You will also be a double check to make sure that the right scans are being read, because you will check that the name of the patient and the date of the scan are correct for each sheet.</b>  This benefit will occur from the FIRST time you look.   