To the Editor: The study estimating radiation dose associated with cardiac computed tomography angiography (CCTA) by Dr Hausleiter and colleagues1 offered important information for radiologists and CT technicians. But as a practicing clinician, what particularly caught my attention was that the median dose-length product (DLP) of CCTA examinations was a little greater than the dose of an abdominal CT study, or the equivalent of 600 chest x-rays.
The vast majority of CT studies of all sorts are ordered by clinicians, and I believe that it is a rare physician ordering standard-type CT scans (such as abdominal studies) who has the slightest idea of the actual level of total radiation to which the patient is being exposed. It appears that the general US population is receiving unrecognized exposure to very large total doses of radiation from CT scans of all sorts. The authors specifically noted that radiation exposure from CCTA has a “small but potential risk of cancer induction. Many clinicians may still be unfamiliar with the magnitude of radiation exposure that is received during CCTA in daily practice.” There should be an educational program for clinicians to acquaint them with the likely doses of radiation exposure that their patients are receiving from CT scans.
Financial Disclosures: None reported.
Country-Specific Mortality and Growth Failure in Infancy and Yound Children and Association With Material Stature
Use interactive graphics and maps to view and sort country-specific infant and early dhildhood mortality and growth failure data and their association with maternal
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