| Heart scans that detect blocked arteries can be | | | | a year in 1980, according to a 2007 review in the New |
| performed with half the amount of radiation exposure | | | | England Journal of Medicine. About 800,000 of the |
| to patients to make them safer, according to | | | | procedures in 2006 were heart scans, according to a |
| Bloomberg news. | | | | recent study in Health Physics. |
| The Michigan study measured the radiation dose from | | | | High cumulative doses of medical radiation may raise |
| heart CT scans of 4,862 patients in 15 hospitals from | | | | the risk of cancer, though researchers aren’t |
| July 2007 to April 2008. A quality control program | | | | certain how much radiation may cause malignancy, |
| lowered the median radiation dose -- expressed in | | | | said Gilbert Raff, the lead author of today’s study. |
| units known as millisieverts --to 10 from 21, according to | | | | Research in the Feb. 4 issue of the Journal of the |
| a study in the Journal of the American Medical | | | | American Medical Association estimated radiation from |
| Association. The full body scans produced good quality | | | | a cardiac CT heart scan equals 600 chest x-rays. At |
| diagnostic images, the study authors said. | | | | the outset of the study, scans delivered a dose of |
| Use of computed tomography, or CT, scans of all | | | | radiation equal to what a person would get from |
| organs is growing rapidly and accounts for half of the | | | | seven years of background radiation from the sun and |
| collective dose of medical radiation U.S. patients | | | | from elements in the earth including radon. |
| received in 2006, the American Heart Association said | | | | Radiation dosages were reduced by lowering the tube |
| in a February statement. The association urged | | | | voltage of the scanning equipment, and slowing the |
| doctors to keep doses of radiation from heart scans | | | | patients’ heart rate with beta blocker drugs an hour |
| “as low as reasonably achievable,” and to use | | | | before the procedure. Cardiac CT imaging is gaining |
| them appropriately. | | | | popularity because of its efficiency and economy, a |
| Cardiologists use CT heart scans to detect artery | | | | top Los Angeles cardiologist says. CT scans are |
| blockages that may lead to heart attacks and other | | | | faster, less invasive and cheaper than some older |
| problems. Cardiovascular disease, the top cause of | | | | imaging procedures, costing about $750 or one-tenth |
| death in the industrialized world, led to 864,480 deaths | | | | the cost of a cardiac catheterization, it is estimated. |
| in the U.S. in 2005, according to the heart association. | | | | The research was funded by Blue Cross/Blue Shield |
| The number of CT tests in the U.S. surged to an | | | | of Michigan. |
| estimated 62 million a year in 2006 from about 3 million | | | | |