Routine Chest Roentgenograms of Hospital Admissions

¹ The Department of Roentgenology, Edward J. Meyer Memorial Hospital, and the Department of Surgery, University of Buffalo School of Medicine, Buffalo, New York.

If all the general hospitals adopt the principle of making x-ray studies of the chest on every admission and calling every suspicious lesion tuberculous, until proved otherwise, a large number of tuberculous patients will be found. It is a protection against the [See Table in Source PDF] high tuberculous incidence among the hospital personnel, especially nurses. This is feasible now that a satisfactory method of miniature chest radiography has been developed. The miniature films are sufficiently good that they can also be used for a large percentage of the usual original chest x-ray studies as well as follow up examinations.

It will be a great step forward in the battle against tuberculosis if all general hospitals adopt this method and attitude. The cost of such a program will soon be cancelled by the low cost of film and labor as well as the economic benefit to the community in general.