With more and more technologies becoming available, doctors are finding that they must increasingly weigh the side effects of testing procedures.
After gaining FDA approval in 2004, CT angiography, a high resolution scan of the heart for blocked arteries, has been much more widely used. However, there is a risk–especially to younger people, as these scans expose patients to 20 times the amount of radiation as a mammogram.
Researchers reported that a CT angiography should be used sparingly, especially on young women, who have a 1-in-143 chance of developing cancer after just one high resolution CT scan.
The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Leave a Reply