An evaluation of chest X-ray in the context of community-based screening of child tuberculosis contacts

Abstract

BACKGROUND: There are no published data on the critical review of chest X-ray (CXR) findings of children in the context of community-based contact screening. OBJECTIVES: To describe the quality, findings and inter-observer agreement of CXRs in child TB contacts in Indonesia. METHODS: We performed antero-posterior (AP) and lateral CXR in children who had had close contact with a pulmonary TB case. The CXRs were interpreted independently by four reviewers. RESULTS: A total of 530 CXRs of 265 children were reviewed. Most (63%) of the children were asymptomatic at the time of CXR. Only 60% of the CXRs were reported as moderate to good quality by all reviewers, and inter-observer agreement on qua..