A chest X-ray produces an image of your heart, lungs, airways, and ribs.
It allows doctors to look at your heart, lungs and chest.
Here is what a normal chest X-ray would look like.
What can a chest X-ray diagnose?
If you have symptoms such as feeling short of breath, a chest X-ray can help doctors find out if it’s caused by a heart or lung condition or something else.
You would have a chest X-ray done as part of routine work up for heart surgery.
If your doctor thinks you may have a heart condition, they will arrange for you to have other tests too.
What happens during a chest X-ray?
You will be asked to remove your clothes down to your waist, put on a hospital gown and remove jewellery.
You will stand against a photographic plate and the radiographer, the health professional who takes the X-rays, will ask you to take a deep breath and hold it (this helps to improve the quality of the X-ray image). Once they have taken the X-ray they will ask you to breathe normally again.
You may have chest X-rays taken from different angles, but they only take a few seconds each time and the whole process usually takes a few minutes. The radiographer will check the images before you leave and tell you when the results will be available to your doctor.
Having a chest X-ray is painless, although the photographic plate is a bit cold and hard.
If you’re worried about having an X-ray, speak to your healthcare professional. Even though X-rays expose you to radiation, it is at a very low level, and it lasts for a fraction of a second. It has less than a 1 in 1,000,000 chance of causing cancer.
- If you are pregnant or think you might be, make sure you tell your doctor.
Want to find out more?
Tests for heart conditions booklet
This booklet describes the special tests that are commonly used to help diagnose heart diseases.
Some of the tests are also used to assess the current condition of people who have already been diagnosed with heart disease.
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Page last updated: October 2023
Next update due: October 2026
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