High CCTA radiation exposure underscores need for better user education

April 1, 2008 High CCTA radiation exposure underscores need for better user education James Brice -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Results from an international trial involving 44 sites have confirmed that the routine clinical use of cardiac CT angiography exposes patients to large amounts of ionizing radiation. The amount of radiation exposure varies considerably, suggesting that users have not uniformly adopted dose-reducing imaging strategies, according to a study presented Monday at the 2008 American College of Cardiology meeting in Chicago. An interim analysis from the Prospective Multicenter Study on Radiation Dose Estimates of Cardiac CT Angiography in Daily Practice (Protection I) found that patients undergoing cardiac CT scans received an estimated average dose of 17.1 mSv. The estimate was based on a mean scan length of 144 mm (±11 mm) and a CTDIVOL, a measure of radiation dose specifically derived from multislice CT imaging, of 65.9 mGy (±69.3 mGy).

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