Chest X-ray versus Chest Computed Tomography in Diagnosis of Various Lung Pathologies in Critically-ill Patients

Abstract

Respiratory disorders continuous to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality among patients admitted to intensive care unit (ICU). There is a consensus in the published literature about the high accuracy of CT scan in the diagnosis of different respiratory disorders, which has become firmly established as the gold-standard diagnostic tool. On the other hand, the chest X-ray is the initial diagnostic procedure for many emergencies among patients hospitalized in ICU as and it was reported to be the most frequent radiological tests performed in ICU. However, there are raising concerns about the high rates of false positive X-ray findings which may lead to potential harm from unnecessary treatment. Additionally, the variable interpretation of chest X-ray findings, depending on clinician and patient factors, and adverse events arising from radiation exposure are another limiting factors. Therefore, we performed the present prospective study in order to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of chest X-ray, compared to CT scan, for early detection of pulmonary complications for adults hospitalized in intensive care unit.