Adult Critical Care Specialty (ACCS) Practice Exam 2025 – All-in-One Study Guide for Exam Success

In the context of congestive heart failure (CHF), chest X-ray findings typically reveal distinct patterns due to fluid overload and heart enlargement. The key findings associated with CHF include bilateral lung opacity, indicative of pulmonary congestion or edema, cardiomegaly representing an enlarged heart due to volume overload, and increased vascular markings which signal elevated pressure in the pulmonary circulation.

Durable pleural effusion, while it can occur in CHF patients due to fluid accumulation, is not a common finding that is routinely associated with CHF itself. It is more of a potential development that can arise secondarily, rather than a primary characteristic that one would expect to identify on a standard chest X-ray for CHF assessment. As a result, when evaluating chest X-rays for CHF, the presence of durable pleural effusion would be less definitive and specific to the direct effects of heart failure compared to the other listed findings.