May 20, 2003
Volume 39 Issue 20
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AMERICAN
ROENTGEN RAY SOCIETY
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Doctors have little
more info than patients about CT scan safety
By Pippa Wysong
SAN DIEGO – Doctors aren't giving
patients enough information about the risks
of getting a CT scan because they themselves
don't know what those risks are, according
to an emergency room survey.
There is still uncertainty in the field
of radiology as to just how safe CT scans
are.
"A lot of people believe it's in the
range of cancer-causing radiation. There are
some who don't believe that, but there are
some who do," said Dr. Howard Forman from
the division of emergency medicine at Yale
University school of medicine. He spoke at
the recent annual meeting here of the
American Roentgen Ray Society.
In the U.S., what are dubbed "screening
CTs" are becoming more popular among healthy
patients, said Dr. Forman.
"Patients are going to these studies,
paying good money for them and the gain is
marginal at best. Some would argue it has no
real health benefits to the patient. And
there is a genuine potential radiation
risk," he said.
Inform patients
Patients should be informed of the
potential risks, he said, in presenting
findings from a survey in which 45 emergency
physicians were asked what the risks and
benefits to patients would be from an
abdominal-pelvic CT scan.
Ten (22%) responded that they do explain
the risks and benefits to patients. Only
nine said they mentioned the radiation dose.
The physicians were asked how they would
compare the radiation from a CT to that of a
typical chest X-ray. Three of the doctors
said the dose was either less than or equal
to a chest X-ray. Twenty (44%) of the
doctors said the dose was greater than a
chest X-ray, but less than 10 times the
dose.
Just over one-fifth of the doctors (22%)
said the radiation dose from a CT was more
than 10 times that of an X-ray but less than
100 times the dose.
Ten (22%) of the respondents were able to
provide an accurate dose comparison—that a
CT scan is 100 to 250 times the dose of a
chest X-ray.
Two doctors thought the dose was
considerably higher.
A typical CT dose "can be in the range of
13 milli-sieverts, which represents the
equivalent of several years of background
radiation dose," Dr. Forman said.
"You can't educate the patients if the
physicians who are ordering the studies and
the physicians who are performing the
studies do not know the risks themselves.
"That's the additional unfortunate
finding," he said.
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