A new report in the "Archives of Internal Medicine," published Monday, adds to evidence that Americans are overexposed to radiation from diagnostic tests. The research states that CT scans done in 2007 will cause 29,000 cancers and kill nearly 15,000 Americans.
CT scans are a specialized type of X-ray. It is also called a computed tomography scan. CT scans allow physicians to create detailed 3D images of internal organs, blood vessels, bones or tumors. Approximately 70 million CT scans were performed in the United States in 2007.
While they give doctors a view inside the body, often eliminating the need for exploratory surgery, as opposed to standard x-rays, CT scans use much higher radiation levels. For example, a chest CT scan exposes a patient to greater than 100 times the radiation of a chest X-ray.
Worse, having a CT scan done in one location may be far more harmful than in another facility. Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) found that the same procedure performed at different facilities, or even on different machines at the same hospital, can yield dramatically different exposures.
As noted above, a normal CT scan of the chest is the equivalent of about 100 chest X-rays. The researchers found that some CT scanners were producing the equivalent of 440 conventional X-rays.
With regards to CT scans and cancer risk, historically the figures used have always been one in 1,000. According to the new report, it is possible that the CT scans may cause cancer in as many as one in 80 patients.
Written by Michael Santo
HULIQ.com
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