nuclear-news

Coronary artery scans — the newest addition to radiologists’ growing arsenal of diagnostic tools — can aid doctors in diagnosing heart problems early. But they expose patients to 50 to 150 times the radiation of a chest X-ray, raising their risk for developing cancer later in life. “We want to make sure patients are getting tests only for the right reasons,” said cardiologist Donald Lappe at a new conference Wednesday touting a 9-month-old initiative aimed at ensuring just that.

Since August 2012 Intermountain Heathcare’s 168 clinics and 22 hospitals have been tracking patients’ cumulative radiation exposure from high-dose tests: CT scans, nuclear medicine scans and interventional radiology exams. Later the hospital chain hopes to also track x-rays, mammograms and other screens.

Generally the cancer risk from a single test is low, but radiation exposure is of growing concern in medicine.

The U.S. population’s exposure to ionizing radiation has nearly doubled over the past two decades, largely due to medical tests, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which requires all hospitals to disclose radiation doses to patients upon request…….http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/56343948-78/radiation-exposure-patients-risk.html.csp