X-RAY EXAMINATIONS

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 16, 14 August 1928, Page 3

X-RAY EXAMINATIONS

by no means infallible, great skill needed. DR. THACKER’S COMMENTS. Press Association—(Jouvrigh I OHRISTGHDRCH, This Day. Discussing the efficiency of X-yay examination, in view' of the Wellington case in which a man’s serious.injuries were not disclosed when he was subjected to such as examination, Dr. H. T.. J. Thacker saitf that the public ran away with the idea that X-rays were absolutely infallible. That was hot so. The operator needed a high degree of skill, born of experience, to: be able to tell by the rays what was what. “The X-rays will lie, and lie badly, and some X-ray pictures are the worst possible kind of lies,” Dr. Thacker said- ‘‘At the same time, they are strong corroborative evicleoe. They may be used to corroborate a diagnosis. To obtain results X-ray photographs must he taken from many angles—sideways, for instance —and with the patient lying prone, face downwards, a posit.on which in cases of recent injury is not possible. In X-raying the chest, the arching of the ribs makes them overlap one another, and there may be a. condition of bones known as ‘marble hones,’ as in elderly people, when no fracture whatever is shown, or when the veins permeating the bones may lead the observer astray.”