X-ray screening
The X-ray series examination (RRU; also screen series examination ) was the systematic examination of the population with X-ray devices for the early detection of pulmonary tuberculosis and other diseases of the chest , practiced from 1939 to 1983 , with mandatory participation at the respective state level.
development
In the context of tuberculosis care, the serial x-ray examination was requested as early as 1926 by the tuberculosis doctor Franz Redeker (1891–1962). The technical prerequisites for mass operation were only in place in the mid-30s, after the radiologist Holfelder in Frankfurt am Main combined the fluoroscopy method with a 35mm camera. The difficulty with this combination was to bring the radiation-donating tube with the fluoroscopic screen and the 35mm camera into the right relationship. Before that, there was only the possibility that so-called flying tuberculosis doctors , who were set up at the suggestion of doctor Joachim Hein , carried out serial examinations using the time-consuming fluoroscopic procedure.
Establishment
The new procedure, in which the small images were subsequently assessed by specialists, passed a test run in Mecklenburg in 1938 . From 1939 onwards, extensive X-ray examinations followed in Baden , Württemberg , Westphalia and Hanover . With the municipality of Friedrichstal in Baden, almost the entire population, from schoolchildren to old people, was subjected to a serial examination for the first time. With the help of a trained operating team, the new technology allowed 250 to 300 prepared test subjects to be examined every hour.
The necessity of the serial examination was underpinned by accompanying scientific examinations, whereby the assertion that in the first 100,000 examinations a share of 1.65% suspicious tuberculosis and a share of 2.27% pathological heart findings were found seems somewhat exaggerated. Ultimately, the argument was particularly convincing that the early stages of pulmonary tuberculosis can be cured through sanatorium treatments. The state insurance institutions and not so much the National Socialist regime, to which the developer Holfelder was close, acted as sponsors and sponsors of the X-ray series examinations. By the end of the war, the X-ray series examinations were extended to all German states.
Against the background of the high incidence of tuberculosis among refugees and displaced persons who had arrived in northern Germany and were housed in camps in a confined space, Hamburg passed the Screen Image Act in 1945 on the initiative of Joachim Hein and Schleswig-Holstein passed the X-ray screening law in 1947. This approach became a model for the federal states of Lower Saxony, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, as Schleswig-Holstein, which was overcrowded with refugees, was able to bring tuberculosis under control. In Hamburg itself and in Bremen , the compulsory serial examinations were given up in 1947 and 1950, respectively. Contrary to this development, Bavaria re-established the mandatory X-ray series examinations on July 6, 1953 with the law on serial x-ray examinations and Baden-Württemberg on April 1, 1954 with a decree on the performance of serial x-ray examinations.
In addition to stationary screen devices, mobile screen devices were used in so-called " X-ray buses " (in the GDR X-ray trains) in the post-war period .
leak
The end of the X-ray series examinations, which were previously only mandatory in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, came to an end on June 30, 1983 in Baden-Württemberg. In 1978, the minimum age in Baden-Württemberg had been raised to 18 years. The analysis of the statistics showed that with falling tuberculosis case numbers (nationwide incidence at this time of 39 TB cases per 100,000 inhabitants), only 4.6 cases per 10,000 examinations were finally found. The coverage of the population was 85–90%. This was countered by the risk of radiation-induced tumors. In the Bundeswehr , serial x-ray examinations were carried out on every soldier during general basic training , despite the low number of findings, until the turn of the millennium. In Bavaria, the law on serial x-ray examinations was not repealed until April 15, 2000.
literature
- Johannes Donhauser: The health department in National Socialism - The delusion of the healthy national body and its fatal consequences - A documentation , health department in the district office Neuburg-Schrobenhausen, March 2010
- Heinrich Asmus, Werner Hauschildt, Peter Höhne: Update of "The History of the Aukrugs" from 1978 and supplements, Aukrug 1995
- Paul Steinbrück, Wilfried Angerstein: The X-ray screen photography and its med. Application , VEB Verlag Volk und Gesundheit, Berlin, 1971
Individual evidence
- ↑ Employees in front of the X-ray screen. Beginning of the row screening in Mannheim factories. Reprint by the Baden State Insurance Company based on a Mannheim press report from May 4, 1939
- ↑ Employees in front of the X-ray screen. Beginning of the row screening in Mannheim factories. Reprint by the Baden State Insurance Company based on a Mannheim press report from May 4, 1939
- ^ Letter from Wilhelm Pfisterer, Vice President of the LVA Baden, to the company managers, 1939
- ↑ Employees in front of the X-ray screen. Beginning of the row screening in Mannheim factories. Reprint by the Baden State Insurance Company based on a Mannheim press report from May 4, 1939
- ↑ Law on X-ray serial examinations of July 6, 1953 BayRS 2126-2-A
- ↑ Decree of the Ministry of the Interior on the implementation of X-ray examinations of April 1, 1954, Common Official Journal of the State of Baden-Württemberg, No. X 2305/44
- ↑ X-ray serial examinations are discontinued. State Gazette Baden-Württemberg, No. 96 of December 4, 1982
- ↑ Art. 17 Second Administrative Reform Act of March 28, 2000 (GVBl p. 136)