CT scan series part 13 – 2 important professional perspectives with a scary revelation.

[ThreeWs]

An “AE” for us CLLers in TX is short for Adverse Event. “AE” are also the initials of a great man of wisdom, Albert Einstein who is quoted in a radiologist's blog saying “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.” Gotta love his juxtaposition of “intelligent” and “fool”.

This read from “Imaging Tech. News” is a radiologist's take on responsible CT scanning. A wee bit technical in places but worth the time to scan(-; tinyurl.com/ofgy2au or

itnonline.com/content/do-we...

I have been involved in several high profile environmental issues where harm has been done not from lack of well written regulations or well designed protocols but because of laxity in enforcement to follow the guidelines.

We patients need to be involved in our scanning experience to sharpen the attention paid to whoever should be looking after our safety and well being. Thank the powers-that-be that I am not alone in raising concern over CT scanning risks as I present another short read with a link to a scary bit of history involving CT diagnostically harmed patients. I knew of Therapeutic radiation harming patients but had not appreciated the risk of radiation overdose from diagnostic CTs until I came on this short read from “The American Association of Physicists in Medicine” or AAPM. Normally I would not have included “horror stories” of CT AEs but the source is hardly a tabloid and it sets up the next in the series for what we might do when contemplating our next scan. When reading the short AAPM article click on the blue link that begins “and several unfortunate cases ….”

AAPM article: aapm.org/pubs/CTProtocols/

The alarm has been duly raised and acted on in the context of pediatric CT scanning. This is appropriate and while it is basically true that CLL is diagnosed primarily in folks over 65 where a likely cancer from CT scanning will not occur until 10 to 20 years later, what about our younger members? While it is rare but possible for CLLers to get three, four and five secondary cancers it begs the question of whether our patient population is more at risk for developing a secondary cancer from CT radiation and sooner due to basic immune deficiencies?

NEMA (National Electrical Manufacturers Assoc.) has created a standard for alerting CT operators to a potential radiation overdose before the patient is actually scanned. This is referred to as “NEMA XR 25 Computed Tomography Dose Check”

nema.org/Standards/Pages/Co... or tinyurl.com/po8d8oc

When you get your next CT scan does the CT scanner operate with this standard? Are you going to ask if it does? The Overdose cases in the video are a small number of patients in the overall number of patients scanned every year so it is unlikely you will have this happen to you. If you voice your concern to your doctors and CT operators you are helping to ensure this will not happen to anyone in the future.

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