Introduced into clinical medicine in 1973, x-ray computed tomography (CT) has revolutionized the field of medical imaging. Its high-quality, 3-dimensional images are used to noninvasively diagnose disease or injury in every organ system and allow for both staging of disease and treatment planning. With each new scanner model came increased technical capabilities and new clinical applications, resulting in growth in CT use of approximately 10% per year since the introduction of spiral CT.1,2 It was estimated that more than 62 million CT examinations were performed in the United States in 2006.3,4 Although the dose per examination has, in many cases, fallen by a factor of 2 to 3 as technology improved,5 the continued increase in utilization has made CT one of the major contributors to the cumulative US population dose from medical uses of ionizing radiation. It is in this context that concerns have been raised regarding a potential increased risk to the US population.4,6–10
Introduced into clinical medicine in 1973, x-ray computed tomography (CT) has revolutionized the field of medical imaging. Its high-quality, 3-dimensional images are used to noninvasively diagnose disease or injury in every organ system and allow for both staging of disease and treatment planning. With each new scanner model came increased technical capabilities and new clinical applications, resulting in growth in CT use of approximately 10% per year since the introduction of spiral CT.1,2 It was estimated that more than 62 million CT examinations were performed in the United States in 2006.3,4 Although the dose per examination has, in many cases, fallen by a factor of 2 to 3 as technology improved,5 the continued increase in utilization has made CT one of the major contributors to the cumulative US population dose from medical uses of ionizing radiation. It is in this context that concerns have been raised regarding a potential increased risk to the US population.4,6–10
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