The usefulness of lateral neck roentgenograms in laryngotracheobronchitis

J. L. Mills, T. J. Spackman, P. Borns, G. A. Mandell and M. W. Schwartz

To evaluate the usefulness of lateral neck roentgenograms when laryngotracheobronchitis (LTB) is the suggested diagnosis, three pediatric radiologists were asked to examine a series of lateral neck roentgenograms of subjects with LTB and controls. In six of the group with LTB, the roentgenograms were unreadable. Given adequate roentgenograms, the radiologists diagnosed or excluded LTB with a high degree of accuracy (sensitivity, 93%; specificity, 92%). However, their predictions of severity based on the roentgenograms showed a poor correlation with measures of clinical severity. The clinical severity of those with unreadable roentgenograms was significantly greater.