Routine chest roentgenograms on hospital admission do not discover tuberculosis

Of 95 cases of tuberculosis diagnosed at Grady Memorial Hospital in 1972, only six patients were not already diagnosed or suspected of having TB at the time of admission to the hospital. In only two of these cases was the diagnosis of TB made because of the routine admission chest roentgenogram (out of a total of 39,017 hospital admissions for the year). Both of these patients had respiratory symptoms for which a diagnostic chest film was indicated. On the basis of this review, routine chest films for all hospital admissions are not of significant value in discovering unsuspected tuberculosis.