TY - JOUR T1 - Agreement between clinical and HRCT diagnoses in the evaluation of patients with respiratory diseases JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 38 IS - Suppl 55 SP - p581 AU - Kabali Nandakumar AU - Kesavaperumal Vijayasaratha Y1 - 2011/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p581.abstract N2 - Aim: HRCT scans have been widely used in the diagnostic algorithm of respiratory diseases. In this study we aim to find out the agreement between clinical and HRCT diagnosis in such workup.Methods: A retrospective study analysing 100 consequetive patients who had HRCT scans between July and September2008. Data of scans and clinical information were obtained from electronic patients records.Results: Total number of patients who had HRCT was 100. The average age patients was 65.3. Males constituted 61%. 76% of referrals were made by respiratory physician (RP), the rest from other specialities. The commonest presenting symptom was SOB (61%). Overall 54% of HRCT diagnosis correlated with clinical diagnosis. 76 request were made by RP of which 29 (38%) correlated with clinical diagnosis. A total of 38 patients had clinical sign on examination, 37 (97%) of these had HRCT findings consistent with clinical diagnosis but only 40 of the 62 patients (64%) with no clinical signs had clinicoradiological correlation. 52 of the 56 patients (92%) who had prior chest X-ray abnormality which was later confirmed on a HRCT. The remaining 42 patients who had normal X-ray, only 20 (47%) had HRCT abnormality. The correlation increased to 96% when it was referred by a RP who had identified clinical signs and this further improved to a 100% when there was an associated CXR findings.Conclusion: In this study only 54% of the patients had clinicoradiological correlation. This correlation improved significantly to 100% when requested by RP who had identified prior clinical signs and chest X-ray abnormalities. Routine request for an HRCT scans are unyielding and should not be encouraged. ER -