The Secret Golden Rules of Radiology

Last weekend while on call I got lost in the radiology department and suddenly found myself in a small, remote, dimly lit room that contained only one large beautifully ornamented bronze plaque:

On top of the plaque it read "The Three Golden Rules of Radiology"

and below:

1. Never let clinicians lock you into a diagnosis, always be vaguely descriptive and always end with the sentence "...has to be decided on clinical grounds"

2. Never exclude the dangerous diagnosis the clinician asks you to exclude. Never write: "No ectopic", "no cancer" etc. Always end with the sentence "(Enter diagnosis clinician wants to exclude here) cannot be excluded"

3. Always recommend another radiological study "for confirmation" or for "further clarification". If the patient has had an ultrasound, recommend a CT, if the patient has had a CT recommend an ultrasound and so on.

I always had suspected this.....