Date of Publication :25th August 2024

Abstract:
Background: Routine chest radiography is widely used in pre-employment medical screening to detect occult cardiopulmonary disease, yet its diagnostic yield in asymptomatic populations is low and may incur unnecessary cost, time, and radiation exposure.
Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic yield of mandatory pre-employment chest X-rays at King Abdulaziz Medical City (KAMC) and to inform a risk-based screening strategy.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional review of 140 consecutive pre-employment candidates (mean age 26.8 ± 3.42 years; range 22–44; 41.1% male) who underwent posteroanterior chest radiography between February 2, 2020, and January 1, 2021. Demographic data and radiology reports were extracted from the BEST-Care system and analyzed descriptively.
Results: All 140 chest X-rays were normal, yielding a 0% abnormality rate across four age brackets (20–26, 27–33, 34–40, ≥ 41 years) and both sexes. No significant associations were found between radiographic findings and age or gender.
Conclusion: The absence of detectable pathology supports the low diagnostic value of universal pre-employment chest radiography in this low-risk cohort. A larger sample size may be necessary to generate robust empirical evidence on this issue.

Reference :