Power SP, Moloney F, Twomey M, James K, O’Connor OJ, Maher MM. Computed tomography and patient risk: Facts, perceptions and uncertainties. World J Radiol 2016; 8(12): 902-915 [PMID: 28070242 DOI: 10.4329/wjr.v8.i12.902]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Karl James, FFR, RCSI, Department of Radiology, Cork University Hospital, Wilton, Cork T12 DC4A, Ireland. drkarljames@outlook.com
Research Domain of This Article
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Radiol. Dec 28, 2016; 8(12): 902-915 Published online Dec 28, 2016. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v8.i12.902
Computed tomography and patient risk: Facts, perceptions and uncertainties
Stephen P Power, Fiachra Moloney, Maria Twomey, Karl James, Owen J O’Connor, Michael M Maher
Stephen P Power, Fiachra Moloney, Maria Twomey, Karl James, Owen J O’Connor, Michael M Maher, Department of Radiology, Cork University Hospital, Wilton, Cork T12 DC4A, Ireland
Author contributions: Power SP was the primary author and drafted the manuscript; Moloney F, Twomey M and O’Connor OJ conducted the literature review and drafted sections of the manuscript; James K edited the manuscript and cross-checked all references; Maher MM was the supervisor for the article, drafted sections of the manuscript and was the primary editor.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Karl James, FFR, RCSI, Department of Radiology, Cork University Hospital, Wilton, Cork T12 DC4A, Ireland. drkarljames@outlook.com
Telephone: +353-21-4920288 Fax: +353-21-4922002
Received: June 13, 2016 Peer-review started: June 17, 2016 First decision: August 4, 2016 Revised: August 29, 2016 Accepted: October 22, 2016 Article in press: October 24, 2016 Published online: December 28, 2016 Processing time: 188 Days and 14.9 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: The rapid increase in computed tomography (CT) utilisation has brought with it significant public concern with regards to the doses of ionising radiation delivered during scanning due to the fact that some experimental and epidemiological evidence has linked exposure to low-dose radiation to the development of solid organ cancers and leukaemia. It now seems that a threshold-model of risk might be more appropriate with the risk increasing exponentially once cumulative doses of 100 mSv or more are reached. Nevertheless, there is an inherent responsibility on the medical community to keep radiation doses “as low as reasonably achievable”. Each imaging procedure needs to be justified and optimised and the minimum radiation dose possible used to obtain a diagnostic CT should remain the goal in each clinical scenario.
