Tuesday, December 04, 20076
CT scans will go on
Despite the recent media attention on the association between CT scans and cancer, they will continue to be ordered unabated. With the current litigious climate, physicians are caught between a rock and a hard place:
“In addition, the fear of lawsuits is another reason CT scans are conducted by many physicians. Multiple successful lawsuits have been won against physicians for not performing CT scans, and the nation needs to reform the litigious system in which physicians are punished for using good judgment and not testing.”When in court, it is much easier to defend the fact that a test was ordered, versus one not being ordered at all.





Comments
10:31 AM
Frisbee
11:43 AM
Non sequiturs for the win, I guess.
12:28 PM
http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/ct/risks.html -- radiation dose for common procedures (whole-body CT not included, but head and abdoment CTs are. I am sure you can find whole-body CT dose somewhere else if you want.
http://www.virrad.eu.org/public/public/nn_exp.html - a dose from 7 hours trans-atlantic flight. It is about the same as a regular chest X-ray or about 500 times less than an abdomen CT or 100 times less than head CT.
You can figure out whole-body CT on your own.
Oh, and in case you don't know all exposure to radiation adds up. Including all flights and all X-rays and all CTs.
12:34 PM
Of course all radiation exposure adds up, no matter where it comes from. However, a lot over a long period is preferable to the same amount at one time.
Thanks for the links.
1:33 PM
That's quite a gift.
4:09 PM
Post a Comment