A Two-Year Follow-up of Persons with Non-Tuberculous Chest Disease Found at “Operation Doorstep”, Vancouver 1964

Eight hundred and fifty-four patients of 928 who had attended a mass radiographic tuberculosis survey and in whom the diagnosis of non-tuberculous lung disease had been made, were located two years after the survey. This was the second follow-up survey of this group, the first having been at four months. The majority of patients were well, but 247 were ill and 101 had died. Serious non-tuberculous chest disease can be diagnosed with accuracy at mass surveys but the benefit to the patient of having these conditions detected is less clear. Serious progressive conditions that lead to death or ill health within two years appear to become symptomatic and force the sufferer to seek medical advice at about the same time that they are detected at mass surveys. This fact, coupled with the low yield of previously unknown tuberculosis, makes the future use of general mass radiographic surveys questionable in areas with good medical services. Evidence is presented that suggests screening directed to specific age groups may be more productive.