Chest radiography in the intensive care unit. Indications for radiography and effects of selective archiving of films.

Consecutive chest radiographs (n = 2,303) in 601 patients in the intensive care units (ICU) were analyzed with regard to main disease and indication. Two thirds of the patients were transferred for routine post-operative treatment, 14 per cent mainly for cardiopulmonary insufficiency. The remainder were referred because of various clinical conditions. The main indications for chest radiography were routine radiographic follow-up and/or control of the position of catheters, tubes, drainages etc. (50%). Obvious clinical indications appeared in only about 1/4 of the patients. When the patients were discharged from the ICU all chest radiographs were analyzed with regard to their predicted future value. Films considered not worth storing were removed and stored in a separate archive (57%). During a 15-month follow-up period none of the removed films were requested, indicating that a substantial number of films can be sorted out continuously. The possibility to reduce and to 'clinically compress' the amount of data in a future digital picture archive is emphasized.