Assessment of Clinical Outcomes of Outpatients Following Chest X-ray Imaging Performed at King Abdul–Aziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Background: Chest X-ray imaging is one of the most commonly performed daily routine investigations in many of the hospitals and diagnostic centers around the globe. Many people have chest X-rays before surgery, although a diagnosis is made based on the findings in only a few cases and each procedure adds to the radiation dose accumulation. According to the American college of Radiology (ACR), most CXR radiograph are less effective and should only be recommended based on the appropriateness criteria including elderly and high risk patients. Nevertheless the issue of replacing X-rays with other technique remains uncertain and mandates further investigation. To aim of this study was to assess and identify the clinical outcomes of outpatients following chest X-ray imaging performed.

Materials and Methods: In total, the data for 185 patients (83 men, 102 female; age range 15 to 90 and above) who underwent chest X-rays were analyzed. This is a retrospective quantitative study design and data was collected from medical records using convenient sampling technique held at King Abdul–Aziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in Radiology Department from September, 2017 to March, 2018.

Results: Analysis of the collected data of a total of 185 patients revealed that 73.5% of the patients had negative radiological findings, while 26.5% had positive radiological findings. The majority of patients were females, comprising 55.1% of the total sample size, while 44.9% were male patients.

Conclusion: From the results of our study, we conclude that that most cases had negative radiological findings regardless of the gender. The daily routine chest radiograph can be avoided by replacing other imaging modalities.