The frequency of various indications for plain chest radiography in Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Nnewi (NAUTH).

BACKGROUND With soaring advances in the field of medicine, the place of older radiologic imaging modalities is being reduced to basic screening tools. Yet the modern imaging modalities like computerized tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasound and nuclear medicine are hardly available. STUDY OBJECTIVES To study the frequency of various indications of plain chest radiography, remind us of its uses and to enhance the preparedness of the department to maximally accomplish the ideals of this investigation. METHODOLOGY A total of 1476 consecutive patients for chest radiography in the department of radiology, NAUTH, Nnewi from the period of February 2009 and whose request form contain adequate data were recruited for this study. These data were analyzed using SSPS. RESULTS A total of 1476 patient were included in this study. There was female preponderance with male to female ratio of 1.3:1. Mean Age of the patients is 39.32 years (std19.56). The most frequent indication for chest radiography is certain infections and parasitic diseases (40.9% and the greatest source of referral for this study is General outpatient (GOPD)/family medicine department. CONCLUSION The most frequent indications for chest radiography in the study are certain infection and parasitic diseases. Chest Radiography is the most frequent plain radiography study in our environment where infectious diseases are still very rampant. This makes chest radiography an important study for screening patient for possible diagnosis and classifying the need for further radiographic investigation of our patients.