BET 1: Lateral chest radiography and the diagnosis of pneumonia in children.

A short cut review was carried out to establish whether a standard frontal view CXR as good as standard frontal and lateral views at diagnosing pneumonia in children with a clinical suspicion of that diagnosis. Three papers presented the best evidence to answer the clinical question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of these papers are tabulated. It is concluded that the addition of a lateral view does not appear to significantly improve the accuracy of pneumonia diagnosis in children by emergency physicians, when compared with frontal view alone.