Indicações mais frequentes na solicitação de radiografias de tórax e seus achados radiológicos, em pacientes com infecção respiratória

Abstract

Background: Acute respiratory infection is the most frequent reason for children s use of emergency medical service. Chest radiography is widely used as a diagnostic method for the management of respiratory infections in children although its benefits are unknown. Aims: The aims of this study are to describe the clinical diagnostics, radiographic reports and the main indications for chest radiography in children attended at an emergency service of a Hospital in the South of Brazil. Methods: Medical records of 466 children with respiratory infection attended at the emergency service of São Lucas Hospital (Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul) were analyzed. Data regarding the reasons for attendance, clinical findings, radiographic report were also collected and analyzed by three trained examiner. Results: From the total of the patients, 233 were boys (50%) and the mean age was 5.7 years-old. Cough (73.6%) and fever (73.0%) were the most frequent reasons for request chest radiography, followed by rhinorrhea (18%), respiratory difflculty (7.9%) and asthma / asthma attacks (5.6%). The most frequent clinical diagnosis was pneumonia (47.4%) and upper airway infection (39.9%). Pulmonary infiltrates (44.4%) and normal reports (43.1%) were the most prevalent findings seen in the radiological evaluation, followed by consolidation (11.2%). Conclusion: The majority of the children had cough and fever as the most common clinical manifestation. Pulmonary infiltrates and normal results were the most common radiological findings. The clinical diagnosis of pneumonia was approximately four times higher than that found in chest x-ray evaluation.