![]() Effective dose allows for comparison of the risk estimates associated with partial or whole-body radiation exposures. It also incorporates the different radiation sensitivities of the various organs in the body. The unit of measurement for effective dose is millisieverts (abbreviated mSv). The quantity most relevant for assessing the risk of cancer detriment from a CT procedure is the "effective dose". See a recent article from the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) titled, "Computed Tomography (CT) - An Increasing Source of Radiation Exposure". The National Cancer Institute and The Society for Pediatric Radiology developed a brochure, Radiation Risks and Pediatric Computed Tomography: A Guide for Health Care Providers, and the FDA issued a Public Health Notification, Reducing Radiation Risk from Computed Tomography for Pediatric and Small Adult Patients, that discuss the value of CT and the importance of minimizing the radiation dose, especially in children. Among children who have undergone CT scans, approximately one-third have had at least three scans. ![]() But at the exposure levels associated with most medical imaging procedures, including most CT procedures, these other adverse effects do not occur.īecause of the rapidly growing use of pediatric CT and the potential for increased radiation exposure to children undergoing these scans, special considerations should be applied when using pediatric CT. Under some rare circumstances of prolonged, high-dose exposure, x-rays can cause other adverse health effects, such as skin erythema (reddening), skin tissue injury, and birth defects following in-utero exposure. To date, there is no evidence of genetically heritable risk in humans from exposure to x-rays. Such estimates of cancer and genetically heritable risk from x-ray exposure have a broad range of statistical uncertainty, and there is some scientific controversy regarding the effects from very low doses and dose rates as discussed below. ![]() The probability for absorbed x-rays to induce cancer or heritable mutations leading to genetically associated diseases in offspring is thought to be very small for radiation doses of the magnitude that are associated with CT procedures.
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