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CT Radiation Dose and Risk: Fact vs Fiction.
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Demaio, Daniel N. |
| Copyright Year | 2017 |
| Abstract | Since its development in the early 1970s, computed tomography (CT) has secured a place among important diagnostic imaging procedures, helping to save countless lives and improve the outcomes of millions of patients. However, the past 8 years have been tumultuous in the history of CT. The much-publicized concerns about the radiation dose patients receive during CT scans have challenged the modality’s perceived value. In many ways, the CT industry is responsible for this shift; new developments in the modality centered on speed (eg, maximizing data acquisition in the shortest time possible) even when these enhancements resulted in elevated radiation dose to the patient. In recent years, however, technological developments and best practices in CT have focused on radiation dose reduction. Imaging personnel now strive to minimize patient exposure during CT scans and vendors have developed technologies aimed at reducing dose. Although much has been accomplished to reduce the exposure patients receive during CT, questions and concerns remain. “How dangerous is this CT scan?” or “Is this CT scan going to give me cancer?” are the type of questions CT patients are asking more and more frequently. It often is the CT technologist who is faced with answering the questions of patients who have been inundated with sensationalized headlines about the dangers of radiation and showered with statistics claiming a link between CT and cancer. Radiologic science professionals can feel as though they are caught in a tug-of-war between a health care system that relies on imaging procedures and a public concern that the radiation associated with imaging is dangerous. When patients ask about the amount of radiation they might be exposed to during a CT examination, they likely are looking for information about the risk associated with exposure rather than for a quantified dose amount. Therefore, it is important for CT technologists to be familiar with the latest empirically supported data on the risks of medical radiation exposure. Achieving widespread and consistent use of a reasonable, accurate approach to the communication of dose and risk to patients and the public should be a primary goal of those in the radiologic science profession. |
| Starting Page | 199 |
| Ending Page | 205 |
| Page Count | 7 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| PubMed reference number | 29298927 |
| Journal | Medline |
| Volume Number | 89 |
| Issue Number | 2 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://www.imagewisely.org/-/media/ImageWisely-Files/What-we-are-reading/RadTech-Fact-v-Fiction-DeMaio-1-22-17.pdf |
| Journal | Radiologic technology |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
