Heart attack patients get high radiation dose
Medical imaging can add up to exposure similar to what nuclear power plant workers experience
By Laura Beil
ORLANDO, Fla. — The first large study to examine cumulative radiation exposure from medical imaging after a heart attack has found that the average patient receives the equivalent of about 725 chest X-rays before leaving the hospital. That’s about one-third the maximum radiation dose allowed for a nuclear power plant worker in a given year.
Whether this is enough radiation to be a cancer risk is unclear, the researchers say, but the information should be sobering for physicians and patients.
Among the billions of imaging tests performed each year, about one-third occur during the treatment and diagnosis of cardiovascular disease, said Prashant Kaul, a fellow in cardiovascular medicine at the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, on November 16 at a meeting of the American Heart Association. Radioactive substances are used to produce images that allow doctors to peer inside the heart, commonly to pinpoint the site of artery blockage or determine blood flow. Until now, physicians did not have a sense of how this radiation exposure accumulates, Kaul said.