MSCT issue: Will a milligray a day keep the doctor away?

July 1, 2008 Diagnostic Imaging. MSCT issue: Will a milligray a day keep the doctor away? By Shalmali Pal -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Many imagers focus on limiting dose, but presentation looks at plusses from a little bit of radiation exposure When it comes to radiation dose, the news media, and the general public by extension, zero in one aspect only: risk, risk, and more risk. But what about any potential positive effects of exposure to ionizing radiation? In a talk at the Stanford Multidetector- Row CT symposium in Las Vegas, Cynthia McCollough, Ph.D., took on the task of scientifically demonstrating that some level of radiation exposure may be a good thing. "It's not news that radiation is a carcinogen," said McCollough, director of the CT Clinical Innovation Center and an associate professor of radiologic physics at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. "But the effect of radiation is based on the dose, the dose rate, the quality of the dose, the gender [of the person exposed], and the age at exposure."

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