Age and ageing
-
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.