[The value of systematic chest radiographic screening in recruits of the Belgian Armed Forces]

The radiographic chest screening has been applied within the Belgian Armed Forces since 1938, to detect tuberculosis. In order to evaluate the actual efficiency--and the utility--of this diagnostic method, the authors have made a prospective study of the examinations performed during a period of six months. The patients in whom a radiologic chest examination would have been performed in every case, on the basis of the clinical or anamnestic elements, were ruled out. The efficiency of the examination is defined as the number of decisions of disability for the armed service, divided by the total number of performed chest examinations. We found 72 (24/10,000) cases of disability for a total number of 30,572 examinations. We found only 9 (3/10,000) cases of tuberculosis and 3 (1/10,000) cases of malignant lesions. The number of cases of tuberculosis is comparable with the rates found in other European studies. The actual efficiency of the radiographic chest screening is thus very low.