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Need to curb overuse of medical ionising radiation

Nearly 400 patients in the U.S. who underwent brain-perfusion scans are known to have received an overdose of radiation. How many folks have received a ‘brain sizzle’ that we do not know about?
• Radiation doses from CAT scans are hundreds of times higher than standard x-rays.
• There is persuasive medical evidence that radiation is carcinogenic.

CT Scan Risks: Radiation Danger and Overuse Threatens Patients, MD Whistleblower, 18 July 2010, Many patients erroneously believe that x-rays and CAT scans have no risk. In their minds, they are non-invasive studies that can cause no harm. Since there are no incisions or anesthesia, they regard the experience as having the same risk as taking a family photograph. How wrong they are. In my mind the danger from non-invasive radiology studies may surpass the risk of hard core medical treatment…… Imaging studies do not cause direct damage, but they may lead patients onto the medical battlefield. These diagnostic tests are an insidious force that draws patients into a spiral of direct risk and medical overutilization…….In many of these cases, the CAT scans were ordered for defensive purposes, and the radiologists’ interpretations often keep the defensive medicine train lumbering forward.
On July 1, 2010, the New England Journal of Medicine, the most prestigious medical journal in the world, published 2 commentaries on CAT scans and medical imaging. While readers are free to review the first and second essays in the journal, I will summarize the major points here.

• Nearly 400 patients in the U.S. who underwent brain-perfusion scans are known to have received an overdose of radiation. How many folks have received a ‘brain sizzle’ that we do not know about?
• Radiation doses from CAT scans are hundreds of times higher than standard x-rays.
• There is persuasive medical evidence that radiation is carcinogenic.
• Physicians like me who order scans have limited knowledge of radiation doses and toxicity……..CT scan overuse is rampant, and there are no forces that are curtailing or guiding its use.  We are spending billions of dollars on scans that are not medically necessary.  ………We describe medical imaging tests as non-invasive, but this is deceptive.  First, there is direct risk of harm from accumulated radiation exposure.  Secondly, and more importantly, there are the indirect consequences.  For many patients, the radiology suite is a danger zone, a trap door that can drop patients into a medical cascade with no way out.

MD Whistleblower: CT Scan Risks: Radiation Danger and Overuse Threatens Patients

July 19, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, health | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive