3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/45
Browse
1 results
Search Results
Item Patient related factors influencing the quality of paediatric chest radiographs(2017) Strasheim, Eben AlbertINTRODUCTION: The chest radiograph is the most common radiographic examination performed worldwide due to its versatility. Improving the quality of chest radiographs and avoiding repeat radiographs can decrease the collective radiation dose to children. AIM: To identify patient related factors that influence the quality of paediatric chest radiographs by assessing the quality of chest radiographs and to compare the quality of chest radiographs in “radiologically” sick patients to those of “radiologically” normal patients. METHOD: A retrospective study was performed to determine the quality of paediatric chest radiographs forming part of an existing database. The sample size of 280 radiographs, included radiographs of children aged 3 days to 13 years. Radiographic errors were captured on an electronic tick-‐sheet, consisting of twelve specific radiographic errors commonly made in practice and included the presence or absence of respiratory pathology. Data was extracted with regards to each of the 12 errors, patient demographics and presence of respiratory pathology to identify associations. RESULTS: The mean patient age was 52.95 months. The most common errors were, in descending order, “rotation”, “under inspiration” and “trachea and bronchi not well seen.” The most common respiratory pathologic finding was “Airspace opacification”. There was a statistically significant, low correlation present between the radiographic error count and the presence of respiratory pathology (p<0.001). There was a statistically vi significant difference in the quality of chest radiographs of children aged 0-‐18 months and those aged 37-‐156 months (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study have demonstrated that there is a correlation between the presence of respiratory disease on a paediatric chest radiograph and the quality of the chest radiograph. The numbers of errors detected were higher in patients with respiratory pathology on the chest radiograph.