Chest X-Ray Findings Among Adult Patients Attending Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital Sokoto Northwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Chest x-ray is the most frequently performed diagnostic examination particularly in patients with respiratory and cardiac diseases and for routine medical checkup and planning for surgery. A study on the image quality of chest x-rays had been conducted but the findings on the chest x-rays have not been studied in this tertiary health institution. This study aimed at revealing the most common pathologies and sex distribution of the pathologies on chest x-rays of adult patients attending the hospital. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study of 190 adult (aged 18 and above) patients’ chest x-ray reports was conducted using the existing reported documents of chest x-rays from the archives of Radiology Department of Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital (UDUTH) Sokoto from January 2018 - October 2019 using data capture sheet as instrument for data collection. Data was analyzed using Microsoft excel version 2010. Results: Out of the 190 chest x-rays, 54% were for male while 46% were for female patients with the highest number of patients in the 29-38 years age group. Most of the radiographs studied were normal examinations (38.95%). Moreover, the most common pathology was hypertensive heart failure (26.84%) with male preponderance (13.68%). Conclusion: Hypertensive heart disease is the most common pathologic finding of adult chest x-ray in the study area with elderly male preponderance.