TY - JOUR T1 - Incidental Chest Radiographic Findings in Adult Patients With Acute Cough JF - The Annals of Family Medicine JO - Ann Fam Med SP - 510 LP - 515 DO - 10.1370/afm.1384 VL - 10 IS - 6 AU - Saskia van Vugt AU - Lidewij Broekhuizen AU - Nicolaas Zuithoff AU - Pim de Jong AU - Christopher Butler AU - Kerenza Hood AU - Samuel Coenen AU - Herman Goossens AU - Paul Little AU - Jordi Almirall AU - Francesco Blasi AU - Slawomir Chlabicz AU - Mel Davies AU - Maciek Godycki-Cwirko AU - Helena Hupkova AU - Janko Kersnik AU - Arthur Mierzecki AU - Sigvard Mölstad AU - Michael Moore AU - Tom Schaberg AU - An De Sutter AU - Antoni Torres AU - Pia Touboul AU - Theo Verheij AU - On behalf of the GRACE Project Group Y1 - 2012/11/01 UR - http://www.annfammed.org/content/10/6/510.abstract N2 - PURPOSE Imaging may produce unexpected or incidental findings with consequences for patients and ordering of future investigations. Chest radiography in patients with acute cough is among the most common reasons for imaging in primary care, but data on associated incidental findings are lacking. We set out to describe the type and prevalence of incidental chest radiography findings in primary care patients with acute cough. METHODS We report on data from a cross-sectional study in 16 European primary care networks on 3,105 patients with acute cough, all of whom were undergoing chest radiography as part of a research study workup. Apart from assessment for specified signs of pneumonia and acute bronchitis, local radiologists were asked to evaluate any additional finding on the radiographs. For the 2,823 participants with good-quality chest radiographs, these findings were categorized according to clinical relevance based on previous research evidence and analyzed for type and prevalence by network, sex, age, and smoking status. RESULTS Incidental findings were reported in 19% of all participants, and ranged from 0% to 25% by primary care network, with the network being an independent contributor (P <.001). Of all participants 3% had clinically relevant incidental findings. Suspected nodules and shadows were reported in 1.8%. Incidental findings were more common is older participants and smokers (P <. 001). CONCLUSIONS Clinically relevant incidental findings on chest radiographs in primary care adult patients with acute cough are uncommon, and prevalence varies by setting. ER -