| Document ID (ISN) | 60144 |
| CIS number |
93-839 |
| ISSN - Serial title |
0962-7480 - Occupational Medicine |
| Year |
1992 |
| Convention or series no. |
|
| Author(s) |
Chaturvedi N., Cockcroft A. |
| Title |
Tuberculosis screening in health services employees: Who needs chest X-rays? |
| Bibliographic information |
Nov. 1992, Vol.42, No.4, p.179-182. 24 ref. |
| Abstract |
There is uncertainty in the British National Health Service about which individuals should be offered pre-employment screening by chest X-ray and whether this procedure is of value in the detection of tuberculosis. To provide evidence for practice, pre-employment chest X-ray and tuberculin skin test status were examined retrospectively for employees of a health district. Cases were those with an abnormal chest X-ray. The majority of the population had positive tuberculin skin tests and there was no difference between cases (58 positive out of 68) and referents (170 positive out of 212). Most of the X-ray abnormalities were trivial: four findings were thought significant, but would have caused no problems if undetected and none of these findings were related to tuberculosis. It is concluded that in new employees in the Hampstead health district, X-ray abnormalities are rare and not predicted by testing tuberculin skin reactivity; neither procedure is justified routinely as a means of screening for tuberculosis. The situation in districts with a high incidence of tuberculosis needs to be investigated. |
| Descriptors (primary) |
tuberculosis; diagnosis; chest radiography; personnel monitoring; tuberculin test; health services |
| Descriptors (secondary) |
pre-employment medical examinations; lung diseases |
| Document type |
D - Periodical articles |
| Country / State or Province | United Kingdom |
| Subject(s) |
Medicine, hygiene and first aid
|
| Broad subject area(s) |
Occupational medicine, epidemiology
|
| Browse category(ies) |
Bacterial and parasitic diseases
Health care services
|
