The role of chest radiography in the evaluation of the 'geriatric giants'.
Three hundred and eighty admissions to a geriatric assessment unit had a routine chest radiograph. Forty-four per cent presented atypically with one or more of Isaacs' 'geriatric giants'--falls, immobility, incontinence or deteriorating mental function. The chest radiograph was abnormal in 164 (44%), of whom 57 had no classical clinical cardiopulmonary features. The chest radiograph was especially useful in the investigation of the geriatric giants, where 22% had evidence of cardiopulmonary disease, in the absence of classical clinical features.
D000368:Aged; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D013902:Radiography, Thoracic