Fluorography: how long the certificate is valid, how often it is done and how harmful the examination is. Fluorography. What is it, what does it show, the results, how often can it be done for children and adults, possible harm, are there any contraindications?

In adult patients, the need for fluorography is a concern due to the presence of a certain dose of radiation. The Federal Law of November 21, 2011 “On the fundamentals of protecting the health of citizens in the Russian Federation” prescribes the need for working citizens to undergo FLG in order to prevent and control dangerous infectious diseases. Therefore, you need to clearly understand when to do fluorography according to the law, and when you can refuse it.

Law of the Russian Federation on the need for fluorography

Law No. 77 of 2001 “On the Prevention of Tuberculosis in the Russian Federation” is often mistakenly considered to be a regulatory document. In fact, the document does not contain information about undergoing fluorographic examination for the purpose of preventing respiratory tract diseases.

In the Russian Federation, since 2012, another regulatory act has been in force under number 1011N “Procedure for conducting a medical examination.” The law is aimed at diagnosing respiratory pathologies as early as possible and prescribes testing for persons over 18 years of age, 1 rad (10 mSV) every two years.

When to get diagnosed

The legislation of the Russian Federation requires the passage of fluorography as a mandatory diagnostic measure during a preventive medical examination. Patients who have documentary evidence of completing the study within the last 12 months are exempt from the study.

Fluorography may not be necessary if you have up-to-date information from thoracic x-ray diagnostics, CT or MRI.

The safest diagnostic method

The requirements specified in the regulatory act may be changed individually or in the event of the development of an extremely unfavorable epidemiological situation. In addition, fluorography is a mandatory health insurance procedure.

Today, another regulatory act is being developed, which will provide for the procedure and timing of medical examinations for the timely detection of tuberculosis. Presumably, the law will come into force in 2018 and will replace document No. 77 of 2001.

Frequency of fluorographic examination

According to the law of the Russian Federation, the working population is required to undergo a study at least once a year.

Based on the results, a conclusion is issued, which is required upon admission to an educational institution and military service, upon employment, and treatment in an inpatient department.

• medical personnel;
• mining workers;
• employees of hazardous production.

Undergoing fluorography several times a year is considered a justified preventive measure, since the chance of developing pulmonary pathologies in this group is high.

Mandatory examination according to the order of the Ministry of Health

According to the order of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation of 2001, employees of medical institutions, regardless of position, are required to undergo fluorography upon entering work, and then every year at intervals of 1-2 times (depending on the position). The same applies to the staff of a medical institution.

Diagnostics is mandatory for employees of children's and social institutions, and public catering organizations.

Refusal of fluorography

The patient cannot be forced to undergo an examination. If you wish, you can refuse fluorography by writing a corresponding statement. An exception may be a difficult epidemiological situation or if the patient is declared incompetent, i.e., unable to make decisions independently.

How to refuse examination legally

If you wish to refuse to undergo a fluorographic examination, you must write an application addressed to the head physician of the medical institution and obtain permission.

If desired, diagnostics can be voluntarily replaced by digital radiography, which reduces radiation exposure. Thus, film fluorography involves exposure to 0.3-0.5 mSV per session, and digital fluorography - up to 0.05 mSV. For comparison: the natural background of Moscow is 0.02 mSV. Therefore, diagnostics using a digital device is harmless.

How to refuse a test if your employer forces you to take it? Only certain groups of people are required to undergo the study. When starting a job, the employer may require a report from a radiologist for safety reasons. In this case, gentle diagnostic methods.

Tuberculosis used to be a terrible disease that could not be cured even in the first half of the twentieth century. Today, disease control is possible with the help of fluorography, the diagnostic benefits of which are obvious. Diagnostics are recommended once a year, however, this is not true.

Annual examination is prescribed only to certain groups of people. Therefore, when undergoing a routine examination, find out in detail from your doctor about the importance of diagnostics, specifically in your case. But you shouldn’t refuse the prescribed fluorography. The specialist knows better whether an examination is necessary in this case or not.

Video

Fluorography is a frequent examination that a person undergoes throughout his life. The purpose of the test is to identify tuberculosis in a person, which can be found not only in adults, but also in children. The disease affects both poor and wealthy citizens. Therefore, in order to prevent the disease, fluorography is performed. How often fluorography is done, and under what circumstances the examination schedule changes - we will consider further.

What is the study?

This method is used in many clinics for diagnostic purposes. Fluorography, like x-rays, takes an image of the patient’s internal organs, which shows the pathology, only the dose received with fluorography is several times less. With its help, deviations are identified, but it is unlikely that it will be possible to make an accurate diagnosis. Therefore, such research is the prevention of tuberculosis.

• children under eighteen years of age (previously up to fifteen);
• patients who feel unwell (exhaustion, manifestation of severe somatic pathologies) - in this case it is done a week after recovery;
• in the presence of pulmonary insufficiency in the stage of decompensation.

These are contraindications that exempt a person from conducting a fluorographic examination. Pregnant women and nursing mothers are allowed to undergo research using a digital device, which gives a much lower dose of radiation. During lactation, after fluorography, it is recommended to express milk, since radiography of the mammary glands could negatively affect it.

Letter of the law

The legislative framework regarding fluorography is imperfect. In 2001, the Law “On Preventing the Spread of Tuberculosis” was adopted, which mentioned carrying out for the purpose of prevention. This document regulated the issue of conducting research for some time.

The new Law “On the approval of the Procedure for undergoing preventive medical examination” of 2012 states how often a fluorographic examination should be done - working citizens are examined from the age of 18 once every two years. Previously, the threshold was 15 years. Therefore, confusion arose about how many times fluorography can be done and at what age. A new document is currently being prepared, which could be adopted as early as 2018 and change the procedure for passing the examination.

Fluorography is a mandatory examination for able-bodied citizens. You should not be afraid of the examination, since the devices give low doses of radiation. Getting tested on time is much easier than later treating an advanced form of tuberculosis.

Video

How often can fluorography be done is a common medical question in which misunderstanding, stereotypical thinking and fiction are closely intertwined. Doctors say that the normal frequency is no more than 2 times a year, but this is only an average.

This procedure is based on X-ray radiation, which is electromagnetic ionizing radiation - one of the types of radiation. For many, just the mention of the word radiation already hides a threat to health, but the risk lies not in the phenomenon itself, but in its varieties and the radiation doses received. Sunlight and tanning are also the result of radiation waves, but they do not harm the functioning of internal organs.

There is, of course, a danger when undergoing fluorography, but in every city there is a small natural radiation background emanating from transport, industrial enterprises, smog-polluted atmosphere and soil. Even conventional microwave ovens, washing machines and refrigerators emit microscopic doses of radiation, but there is no point in refusing to use these useful devices.

The maximum norm for the human body is considered to be radioactive radiation with a power of up to 200 mSv per year, and during the fluorography procedure a person receives from 0.03 to 0.08 mSv.

Some modern high-tech devices are capable of taking pictures even with radiation as low as 0.002 mSv, so the procedure does not pose any risk of radiation exposure.

Even when combined with the natural background, the radiation level does not exceed permissible limits.

Fluorographic examination should be performed as often as medical indications require in order to help diagnose diseases.

You should not put yourself on a par with the liquidators of accidents at the nuclear power plants of Chernobyl and Fukushima: in order to develop radiation sickness, you will need at least 25,000 photographs taken per day, and during fluorography only 1-2 are taken.

For the prevention and timely detection of diseases, fluorography should be done once a year, but there are categories of people for whom it is necessary to do this more often - 2 times a year.

These include:

• employees of maternity hospitals and departments, specialized medical institutions and tuberculosis dispensaries;
• kindergarten teachers;
• people suffering from diabetes, asthma, ulcers and other chronic diseases;
• workers in the mining and steel industries;
• those who work in factories that produce asbestos, rubber and chemicals.

Smokers are also at risk.

If, due to professional necessity, a person is forced to frequently contact other people, then it is necessary to undergo fluorography at least once a year - this norm is enshrined in legislative documents.

Cooks, teachers, doctors and nurses are not allowed to work until they undergo a routine medical examination, which includes fluorography. In many universities, students are also required to provide fluorographic images, otherwise they will not be allowed to attend the session. Even in some non-state enterprises, for example, large banks, where employees interact with thousands of people every day, there is an official requirement to undergo a fluorographic examination.

To neutralize possible harmful effects, you should include in your diet more foods rich in antioxidants - vitamins A, C and E:

• red wine and grape juice;
• milk and fermented milk products;
• whole wheat bread;
• oatmeal;
• bran;
• brown rice;
• prunes.

Fluorography for children

According to the law, fluorography is prohibited for children under 15 years of age.

To examine children under this age, ultrasound or x-rays are used, because when it comes to children, the resulting damage outweighs all the advantages of this diagnostic method.

For the fragile body of a small child, irradiation can have disastrous consequences.

It affects the reduction of immunity and opens the way for viral infections, and can even provoke the appearance of cancer cells.

But if the case concerns adolescents over 15 years of age, then fluorography can be carried out as prescribed by the attending physician. Mild inflammation, prolonged cough, and a positive reaction to manta can be symptoms of serious diseases, which are important to identify at the initial stage and prescribe appropriate treatment.

In such a situation, the risk of radiation is much lower than the threat to the child’s health, especially since the frequency of the procedure does not exceed 1 time per year.

Fluorography for pregnant and breastfeeding women

Pregnant women do not undergo fluorography. Just as for babies, radiation exposure to the fetus can cause irreparable damage. If necessary, radiography is performed: a more expensive type of examination, which makes it possible to obtain higher quality and more detailed images. The radiation dose is the same, but the doctor is able to obtain much more information necessary for treatment than with fluorography.

During breastfeeding, there are no contraindications to the procedure; it does not have a harmful effect on the quality of milk.

If you are not in the risk zone, then whether to do a fluorographic examination for preventive purposes is up to you to decide. It helps to identify the development of tuberculosis, lung cancer and other dangerous diseases of the respiratory system in the early stages.

For a healthy person, undergoing the procedure once a year is the norm and does not entail deterioration in health, and minor damage can be easily eliminated if you add more foods rich in antioxidants to your menu.

Fluorography is an effective method of radiographing in which images obtained under the influence of an x-ray are photographed. Tissues of the human body with different densities transmit such radiation to varying degrees. Thanks to this, darker and lighter areas are visible in the image, which depend on the structure of the tissues themselves. But how often can fluorography be done? To answer this question you need to thoroughly understand this topic.

Digital images can be constructed as composite pixels or spatial frequencies. Filtering algorithms operate at pixel or spatial frequencies, but they are much faster at them. One of the interests of image filtering is changing its spatial frequency.

Image smoothing is useful for noisy images or in regions where radiation doses are too low, eliminating high frequencies to allow only low frequencies to pass through. Pixel smoothing uses either the average or median intensity of the pixels in a kernel of a given size around the pixel for smoothing.

In what cases is a fluorogram performed?

The standard fluorography procedure is an examination of the body in the chest area. Based on the results of the studies, diseases of various organs are diagnosed: lungs, heart muscle, mammary glands. A fluorogram can show the following problems:

• Tumor;
• inflammatory processes (with significant spread);
• cavities filled with liquids/gases;
• sclerosis;
• fibrosis;
• foreign parts.

Regularity

Every person needs to understand how many times a year fluorography can be done. Even if you have no symptoms or other infections, having a chest exam every year is recommended. This procedure is also part of a comprehensive therapeutic examination, which allows us to identify the risk of developing various pathologies in the early stages.

Mean-average smoothing tends to smooth out differences in intensity between pixels and blur the outlines of small, well-defined, high-contrast structures. Average neighborhood smoothing aims to reduce gray level fluctuations and keep edges clean. Structures smaller than the size of the nucleus are erased. This type of smoothing can be used when previous neighborhood smoothing is ineffective, to attenuate large gray tone fluctuations due to noise.

There are two main methods for edge enhancement: frequency filtering and spatial filtering. Frequency filtering can suppress low frequencies to allow high frequencies to pass through. Fuzzy mask subtraction. Spatial frequency processing allows for tailoring the frequency response characteristics of radiographic structures. Phospholuminescent plates mainly use nonlinear fuzzy mask technique.

The following categories of people need to be examined every year:

• Employees of companies and organizations with professional activities related to the decreed contingent.
• All citizens over 40 years of age. This need arises due to the fact that this category has a high risk of infection with tuberculosis or pulmonary malignant tumors.
• People with a chronic nonspecific disease related to the respiratory organs, gastrointestinal tract and genital organs (diabetes, stomach/intestinal ulcers).
• Citizens who have mental disorders, dust lung diseases, hyperergic reactions to the administration of tuberculin.
• Persons who abuse alcohol, tobacco and drugs.
• Citizens who have been prescribed corticosteroid, radiation or cytostatic therapy.
• People belonging to social groups with a high probability of infection with tuberculosis inflammation.
• Citizens who live in social premises for helping the homeless/refugees/implanted people.
• Persons previously involved in the production of quartz/asbestos dust, the production of carcinogens (nickel, chromium, etc.).
• People with residual changes in the lungs or pleura of non-tuberculous origin.
• Citizens who have close and prolonged contact with pregnant women and newborn children, as well as persons surrounded by children and adolescents being tested.
• For teenagers in case of conscription for military service, a fluorogram is cut out and attached to the documents submitted to the military registration and enlistment office.
• Persons who live in social hostels.
• Citizens undergoing training from educational institutions (secondary and highest categories).

Often the answer to the question “how often should fluorography be done” is “twice a year”. This need arises among the following groups of people:

The fuzzy mask method is expressed by the equation. The fuzzy mask method is performed in two stages. In the first stage, a clean image in which edges are enhanced is obtained by subtracting a mask, which is a fuzzy image obtained from the original image, from the original image. The spatial frequencies of the edge image depend on the degree of blur of the mask. The blur of the mask depends on the size of the kernel blurred by averaging the pixels of that kernel. Low frequencies are boosted by a large mask and high frequencies by a small mask.

The gain can be numerical and independent or dependent on the signal level in the original image kernel. Low gain is used for low x-ray and high x-ray areas. high attenuation. This nonlinear processing reduces noise in low-attenuation areas and enhances contrast in high-attenuation areas. Overall, low-frequency structures are attenuated, and detection of low-contrast and angular structures is improved. The Small Core tends to sharpen the edges of linear structures.

1. Military personnel serving on the basis of conscription based on age.
2. Maternity hospital employees who spend a lot of time with expectant mothers and babies.
3. Persons with close relatives or work colleagues who are sick.
4. Citizens who have previously suffered tuberculous inflammation with residual changes in the lungs. This need lasts for the first 3 years after diagnosis of the disease.
5. People who have recovered from tuberculosis and were deregistered from the tuberculosis dispensary.
6. Persons who have been released from prison must have their health checked for 2 years.
7. Citizens under investigation in pre-trial detention centers and convicts held in correctional colonies.
8. HIV-infected people.
9. Patients who are registered with narcologists or psychiatrists.

In addition to the scheduled preventive examination, an extraordinary fluorogram is indicated for the following groups of people:

The Large Nucleus tends to emphasize the intensity of various structures down to the size of the nucleus. Explicitly masking blur can create a dark halo artifact in steep transition zones between low- and high-intensity areas of the image.

Comparing several masks of different sizes gives an advantage to large size masks over small masks. Large mask filtering is most suitable for better simultaneous vision of linear, nodal and micronodular images of the chest. Moderate gain is most appropriate, and designers express this type of treatment differently using a fuzzy mask in terms of kernel size, frequency, and sigma value.

1. People aged 15 to 40 years who are admitted to hospital treatment or are visiting medical institutions for the first time for the current year.
2. Citizens over 15 years of age who are entering study/work.
3. Persons who care for their children in children's hospitals.
4. Citizens coming from other countries/regions to enter a university or to work.
5. People who are diagnosed with HIV infection for the first time.

How often should fluorography be done for adults who do not belong to high-risk groups and the decreed population? In this case, the regularity of fluorograms is 1.5-2 years. If you have had long-term close contact with people infected with tuberculosis infection, then this kind of x-ray should be carried out every six months.

Variations in the use of the fuzzy mask have been described: Abe, using a histogram of a digitized image of the chest, divided the chest into three regions: the lungs, the retrocardial region and the spine and diaphragm. An adapted blur mask is then automatically applied to each of these areas, improving their analysis. This technology has effects and results similar to dynamic scale compression.

Dynamic scale compression. Dynamic scale compression extracts numerical information from the white and black areas of an image. In Diagram 3, the ladder function simulates large anatomical structures such as the heart, lungs, and mediastinum, the coordinates of which are shown on the x-axis.

Fluorogram safety

Many people, when asked the question “how many times can you do fluorography,” answer “when you want to check your health.” But such a procedure can cause quite serious harm to the human body.

When smoothing is performed, small changes in the signal are suppressed. As a result, the signal of low-density zones is amplified and the dynamic scale is narrowed, leaving small signal variations as well as differences in contrast. Applying function 3a to function 3a, we obtain compression of high-density regions, which leads to a decrease in the densities of high-density regions.

In addition to irradiation, selenium is an insulator that has the property of photoconductivity. When irradiated, it has electrical conductivity proportional to the intensity of irradiation. This property is used to convert radiation directly into an electrical signal. Three sequential steps allow the image to be formed: first, a cylinder of selenium is loaded, then it is irradiated, and finally it is read to extract information. The first step is to prepare the cylinder. This discharge carries a high positive electrical potential at the same time that the opposite polarity is applied to the aluminum substrate: the result is a strong electric field in the selenium that charges it.

If radiographic examinations are carried out every 12 months, the dosage of radioactive exposure will be relatively low, and such procedures will in no way affect your body. Therefore, fluorograms are often indicated only when absolutely necessary.

Now you know how often you can do fluorography of the lungs, so you can correctly calculate whether the annual amount of x-ray exposure has been exceeded.

The second step is the actual exposure through irradiation. X photons are absorbed in the selenium layer, which releases electrons. These free electrons, under the influence of an electric field, pass to the surface of the selenium layer, where they neutralize part of the deposited positive charge. This reduces the local surface charge by a greater or lesser intensity proportional to the irradiation intensity. Thus, the latent image is created as a set of charges on the selenium surface.

In the third stage, the rotation of the cylinder is accelerated and the electrical charges are scanned and converted into a digital signal. The scanning is performed without physical contact, but with 36 electrometers at a distance of about 100 microns from the surface. The resulting signal is amplified, digitized and transmitted to the processor. The selenium layer can then be recharged for the next collection. Image processing is carried out in accordance with the same principles as photo-shooting screens.

Fluorography is a universal tool for diagnosing diseases lungs and heart. It is regularly prescribed to citizens who have reached 18 years.

The main federal regulatory document is often mistakenly considered Law No. 77 of 2001 “On preventing the spread of tuberculosis in the Russian Federation.” In fact, in the text of this document there is no mention of fluorography as a method of preventing and diagnosing tuberculosis.

To charge the cylinder, an electric shock is applied while the cylinder is slowly rotated. When the cylinder surface is fully loaded uniformly, the rotational motion stops and exposure can be made. After the cylinder is exposed, it accelerates at high speed, and the reading by capacitors can do. This is done in 9 seconds. The sensors slide slowly in a direction parallel to the cylinder axis, creating a helical sensing of the surface, the resolution is 0.2 mm and the signal is converted to 8-bit depth. the image on the cylindrical detector is corrected to make a matrix plane.

What does the law require for fluorography?

In Russia since 2012 valid Law No. 1011n “On approval of the Procedure for conducting preventive medical examinations”. It is intended for the earliest possible detection of latent forms of diseases and requires individuals to undergo a medical examination over 18 years old periodically 1 time every 2 years.

The selenium detection curve is almost parallel to the 100% ideal line: it is removed from the ideal line because the 500 µm selenium layer is not thick enough to absorb all the X-rays. Phospholuminescent plates are a little further from this ideal curve because they have noise inherent in the thickness of the europium fluorescent layer. The performance of film screens is lower than the photostimulated plates themselves, lower than the selenium receptors. In addition, these latter two types of receptors have an almost linear response over a wide irradiation range, whereas film screen vapors have significant efficiency in a limited irradiation area.

When to get checked

The regulatory act classifies fluorography of the lungs as mandatory event during medical examination. Diagnostics need not be made if there is documentary evidence that the patient has undergone fluorography within the last year.

The retrodiaphragmatic and retrocardial regions, cheils, superior mediastinum, ribs and soft tissues are especially well analyzed. Other methods of scanning images are available. They have advantages and disadvantages depending on the regions studied. With the chest, the rib cage requires the highest spatial resolution.

The X-ray beam equation is not a digital radiology system, but can support phospholuminescent plates. Two systems allow the radiation intensity to be adapted to the radiographic area. Spot or linear measurement of the X-ray beam transmitted through the patient allows you to adjust the radiation intensity and even out the blackening of the film.

The same restriction applies if there are current X-ray data or chest computed tomography readings.

The standards may be revised in case of individual need or if an epidemiological situation arises. The study is carried out as part of compulsory health insurance and is free for the patient.

The duration of radiation is too long for a chest x-ray. Both systems use electronics that equalize the intensity of the transmitted beam, but both affect conventional film and do not produce a digital image, however, instead of printing the film, a phospholuminescent plate can be irradiated. This improves image quality and creates a high-quality digital image.

Long developed and used in digital angiography, digital fluorography is unsuitable for chest radiography. The scintillator-photodiode array provides insufficient pixel size in chest radiography, but the potential of this technique is very high for imaging with flat panel detectors.

Currently in development is the order of the Ministry of Health No. 124 n “On approval of the procedure and timing of preventive medical examinations of citizens in order to detect tuberculosis,” regulating and fluorographic control. The law may come into force in 2018 and will replace the legal act No. 77 of 2001

How often should fluorography be done: table

Order of the Ministry of Health on mandatory fluorography

In accordance with by order of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation No. 302 n of 2011, medical employees at all levels are required to undergo fluorography upon entry to work, and then periodically 1 time per year.

X-ray film scanning can be done in several ways. The limits are close to , but the possibilities for image processing and remote transmission are very interesting. Microdensitometry scanning uses a high-intensity laser and a photomultiplier tube to accurately measure the optical density of each point on the film. This is a very interesting process for digitizing images that are originally analog and is suitable for film based images. The possibilities of processing a digital image and “catching up” with the initial non-digital image are very great. to evaluate diagnostic capabilities and digital image processing capabilities.

The same requirement applies to service personnel of medical institutions.

Photo 1. Sample of a certificate issued upon successful completion of fluorography.

Fluorographic examination is mandatory for employees of children's organizations and catering establishments, as well as companies with a social service profile.

Such a scan can be the starting point for remote transmission when the laser or scanner is connected to a computer with a modem. This system, developed by Professor Sharpak, is currently under evaluation and its resolution is currently insufficient for primary diagnosis on chest x-ray. However, its principle presupposes a promising future. The big advantage of this system is the very significant reduction in radiation exposure with less scattered radiation and greater image latitude.

For a chest x-ray, the radiation will be divided into 3-2 times. At the moment, this method can be indicated when monitoring already known thoracic pathology. Digital images can be reproduced and analyzed on screen or film. Screen analysis can make films disappear and allow them to be replaced by electronic film cameras, which must be easy to use, easy to use and have sufficient resolution. The film and high-definition screen rendering scores are equal to the film readings or even higher in Radiopedia.

Is it possible by law to refuse to conduct

Fluorography cannot be performed forcibly. The exception is unfavorable epidemiological situation or incapacity(inability to make informed independent decisions) of the patient.

For the majority of the adult population, the question of how often fluorography can be done arises because the examination involves a certain dose of radiation. The Law “On the Fundamentals of Protecting the Health of Citizens in the Russian Federation” requires all working citizens to undergo FLG for preventive purposes, but not everyone wants to be irradiated while in full health.

At the same time, people with chronic lung pathologies are forced to control the disease, but are afraid that they undergo fluorography too often. Therefore, it is necessary to know some aspects of this procedure, its necessity, and its effect on the body.

Fluorography as an x-ray examination

During the passage of FLG, X-rays in an amount of 0.05 millisievert are passed through the human body. This is a tiny dose within the permissible radiation exposure limit, which can help save your health. Using a fluorographic examination of the chest, medical specialists diagnose:

• severe infectious lung disease (tuberculosis);
• inflammation of the lung tissue (pneumonia);
• lungs' cancer;
• inflammation of the pleural layers of the lungs (pleurisy);
• pathologies of the cardiovascular system.

Based on the images taken, the doctor prescribes treatment. Timely initiation of therapy sometimes saves a person’s life, and if tuberculosis is diagnosed, it allows one to protect other people from infection by isolating the patient.

The advantages of the procedure include its low cost, and many district clinics do it for free. In addition, data is stored on digital media for a long time, requiring little time investment. The study lasts three minutes, and the decoding of the indicators takes no more than 24 hours. Sometimes it is very important to know how long it will take for the result to be ready. The advantages also include the absence of pain, high accuracy of indicators, and no need for preliminary preparation of the patient.

Photo of fluorography of a healthy person - drawing of lungs within normal limits

Frequency of examination

According to the law of the Russian Federation, the working population needs to undergo fluorography once a year. Based on the results of the examination, a certificate is issued, which is required for employment, upon admission to study, before hospital treatment, and for conscripts. The results of lung fluorography are valid for 12 months. Therefore, if there are no special indications for the examination, there is no need to undergo the procedure frequently.

For a healthy person, once a year is enough. To avoid untimely receipt of a portion of x-rays, it is important to know exactly the expiration date of the FLG. Another question about how often fluorography can be done arises if a person goes to the doctor with complaints of feeling unwell or has had contact with a patient with tuberculosis. In this case, pictures are taken more often, which helps to identify the disease.

There is a separate category of citizens who are required to undergo a fluorogram in a more intensive temporary mode. This is a justified preventive measure, since this group of people is more likely to become infected or acquire pulmonary diseases.

These include:

• medical staff of maternity hospitals. Newborn children and pregnant women need enhanced protection;
• doctors working with tuberculosis-infected patients. The risk of infection in this category is higher;
• workers of mining enterprises. There is a large percentage of lung cancer in this industry;
• workers in hazardous industries (asbestos, rubber) and steelworkers, who are also more often susceptible to lung cancer.

For these people, different rules apply regarding how many times a year fluorography can be done.

When is research not allowed?

FLG is not used for diagnosis in women during pregnancy. Why is this so important? Because X-rays can cause the development of pathologies in the unborn baby. This procedure is not recommended during lactation. In case of emergency, at least 6 hours should pass between the moment of irradiation and feeding. Milk should be expressed during this period. The procedure should not be performed on patients in serious condition. If it is not possible to postpone the process, it is better to use an MRI.

Children under 14 years of age are not exposed to radiation, since they receive a higher dose of radiation due to a more intense metabolism, only under absolute indications

Other cases:

• fluorogram was done more than 2 times a year. It is recommended to replace the X-ray dose with magnetic resonance imaging.
• there are chronic diseases of the respiratory system. In the acute period of bronchial asthma and respiratory failure, it is necessary to wait for a period of remission, since it is difficult for a person to hold his breath, which will significantly complicate the examination.

Annual X-ray control is not only the prevention of diseases in yourself. In cases where a person has undergone the procedure and the diagnosis of a lung infection is confirmed, there is a chance to protect loved ones if they have not yet undergone FLG.