Findings
Read Your Scan Editorial Team·Last updated
Written from published radiology references and reviewed for plain language. Not written or signed by a physician, and not a diagnosis. How we write these pages →
In plain language
The long middle section, where the radiologist walks through each structure in turn and describes what it looks like. Much of it is a record of the normal things that were checked, which is why it reads as more alarming than it is.
Upload your MRI, CT, X-ray or ultrasound — de-identified in your browser — and every finding is mapped onto your images and explained without jargon.
Where you'll see this
Between the technique and the impression, on every kind of report.
Your report may word it “Report” or “Observations”. These mean the same thing.
Questions worth asking your doctor
- Which part of this report is the conclusion I should focus on?
- Was the question my doctor asked actually answered by this scan?
- Is there an earlier report or addendum I should be reading alongside this one?
How often does this turn up?
Findings is a section heading, and it appears on essentially every radiology report. It is the long middle part where the radiologist describes what they saw, structure by structure, including a great deal that is entirely normal. It is written to another doctor and it is deliberately exhaustive rather than selective, which is why it is the part that alarms people most and helps them least.
Does it mean something is wrong?
The section is not ranked and not summarised. A serious observation and a routine one sit in the same flat prose, in anatomical order rather than in order of importance, so reading it looking for the bad news gives a wildly distorted impression. The part that actually carries the radiologist’s judgement is the impression at the end, which is short, prioritised and written to be acted on. If the findings frighten you and the impression does not, trust the impression.
What to do with it
Nothing follows from the heading itself. The practical advice is simply to read the impression first and use the findings as detail to go back to. Anything in the findings that matters will be repeated in the impression; anything mentioned once in the findings and never referred to again was, by the radiologist’s judgement, not worth acting on.
Frequently asked questions
- Should I read the findings section?
- Read the impression first. The findings list everything seen in anatomical order, including a lot that is normal, and it gives no sense of what matters. The impression is where the radiologist says what they actually think.
- Why is the findings section so long?
- Because it is a record of what was examined, not a summary. Naming a structure and describing it as normal is a positive statement that it was looked at, which is useful to the referring doctor even though it reads as noise to a patient.
- Something is in the findings but not the impression. Does that matter?
- Usually it means the radiologist judged it not worth acting on. The impression is deliberately selective, so something described once and not carried forward was, in their assessment, incidental.
Parts of a report
Where this word comes up
Still worried about what your report says?
Upload your scan (de-identified in your browser) and your radiologist's report, and every finding is mapped onto the images, explained in plain language and scored. Informational only — not a diagnosis.
Read Your Scan is informational only — not a medical diagnosis, and not a substitute for a licensed radiologist or your doctor. If you have urgent symptoms, seek care.