Chest X-rays may help identify high-risk H1N1 patients who have been hospitalized, Israeli physicians have suggested.

Although a normal chest X-ray did not exclude the possibility of an adverse flu outcome, the doctors found abnormal results could help better identify patients requiring close monitoring, says the lead author of a study, Dr. Galit Aviram of Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center.

Aviram says in a statement, "Abnormal findings in the periphery of both lungs and in multiple zones of the lungs were associated with poor clinical outcomes."

Aviram and colleagues took chest X-rays of 97 consecutive patients with laboratory-confirmed H1N1 diagnosis admitted between May and September 2009 to Sourasky's emergency department -- 53 men and 44 women with a mean age of 40.4.

The doctors found abnormal X-ray findings for 39 of the patients, when the chest X-rays were correlated with outcomes,

The study further says that in the group of 58 patients with normal chest X-ray findings, two patients, experienced adverse outcomes. (With Inputs from Agencies)