Trends in Chest Radiographs for Pneumonia in Emergency Departments

National guidelines recommend against routine use of chest radiography (CXR) for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) diagnosis in the pediatric emergency department (ED). Given that CXR is often used to exclude the diagnosis of CAP, a reduction in CXR use may result in overdiagnosis of CAP. We sought to evaluate trends in CXR use and assess the association between CXR performance and CAP diagnosis among children discharged from pediatric EDs.

Children 3 months to 18 years of age discharged from 30 US EDs with (1) CAP or (2) fever or respiratory illness between 2008 and 2018 were included. Temporal trends in CXR use and rates of CAP diagnoses among patients with fever or respiratory illness were assessed. Correlation between hospital-level CXR use and CAP diagnosis rates were evaluated by using Spearman's correlation weighted by hospital volume.

CXR usage decreased from 86.6% to 80.4% (P < .001) for patients with CAP and from 30.4% to 18.6% (P < .001) for children with fever or respiratory illness over the 10-year study period. CAP diagnosis rates also declined from 7.8% to 5.9% (P < .001). Hospital-level CXR use was correlated with pneumonia diagnosis rates (correlation coefficient 0.58; P < .001).

Over the past decade, there has been a decline in CXR use in the ED among children with pneumonia and respiratory illnesses, with a decrease in pneumonia diagnoses over the same time period. Future studies are needed to assess the role of CXR in the evaluation of children with possible pneumonia in the ED setting.