A comparison of the chest radiograph and computerised tomography in assessing lung changes in acute spinal injuries--an assessment of their prevalence and the accuracy of the chest X-ray compared with CT in their assessment.

Lung function in patients following an acute spinal injury is frequently much more compromised than may be expected from the level of injury and the chest radiograph appearance. Experimental evidence in anaesthetised patients and subsequently our own experience with patients with acute spinal injuries suggested that in paralysed patients lung changes were frequent and that in many spinal patients large pleural effusions and lung consolidation could be present without the usual associated chest radiograph changes being recognised. This study was performed to assess the prevalence of chest pathology and the sensitivity of the chest radiograph in portraying it. Sixty patients (50 males, 10 females, 31 cervical, 29 thoracic or thoracolumbar; 15 incomplete, 45 complete; ages 17-66, mode 22 years) with spinal injuries from a variety of causes were assessed with a supine chest radiograph and three computerised tomography axial cuts at standardised locations through the thorax. The chest radiograph agreed with the computerised tomography in only 12 patients (six normal, six abnormal). The chest radiograph suggested that there were 19 normals but computerised tomography only showed 12. In a total of 35 patients, the chest radiograph significantly underestimated the degree of change and in 13 the chest radiograph suggested greater pathology than was shown on computerised tomography. Thirteen of the 20 patients with cervical lesions but no chest trauma had lung changes.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)