Philadelphia practice claims to reduce CT radiation dose by 40%
One Philadelphia-based medical center claims to have discovered a method that can decrease radiation dose during CT scans by 40 percent, CBS Philly has reported.
Ryan Lee, MD, the chief of neuroradiology at Einstein Medical Center, told CBS the new technique involves using advanced software to standardize CT scans across their practices. He said that as far as he’s aware, Einstein is the first center to develop a method for consistently applying the same radiation dose to each and every scan.
“Especially with increased use of CAT scans, there is more concern for cancer,” Lee told CBS. “So, if we can minimize the amount of radiation we give to our patients, we can lower that risk.”
The patients most at-risk for overexposure to radiation are those who undergo CT scans most frequently, as well as children, Lee said—and simply dropping radiation dose might not be the most beneficial approach.
“Decrease dose isn’t the ultimate goal because anyone can decrease dose,” Lee said. “The trick is to decrease dose and preserve the quality, or, in some cases, increase the quality of our scans.”
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After graduating from Indiana University-Bloomington with a bachelor’s in journalism, Anicka joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering cardiology. Close to her heart is long-form journalism, Pilot G-2 pens, dark chocolate and her dog Harper Lee.