The applications of CT continue to unfold and in the process save lives. Scientists are now using scans to study the development of insects in the place of dissection which is time consuming and kills the specimens. Think of how many tiny lives could be saved. Insects make up between 50% and 85% of the animals on this planet, but not much is ...

Since many people don’t know the difference between CT and MRI, I was wondering if patients who get a CT even know about the radiation risks. I found a study that addresses this issue. A large medical center surveyed 235 patients who underwent either a CT or PET-CT. Researchers found that one third of patients receiving scans did not realize ...

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has been researching hospitals that order too many CT scans. They particularly looked at the ordering of “double scans” or two scans ordered for the same patient; one with a contrast agent and the other without. “Such double scans are rarely necessary, and expose patients to 700 times as much ...

The May/June 2012 CT Edition of the Journal of the American Society of Radiologic Technologists has an excellent article about stroke and CT perfusion. The information outlined is invaluable to any technologist who has to perform perfusion scans. When they started doing them at my former hospital I received very little training on how to ...

As CT technologists we often wonder if the scan we are performing is really necessary. Do we not fully understand the severity of the illness, have we not taken a thorough history, or are we thinking about the potential unnecessary radiation the patient is about to receive. These are all things that pop into our minds from time to ...

This week I saw my first patient refuse her CT scan due to her concerns of receiving too much radiation. She stated that she has had numerous scans recently and knows that the radiation can be dangerous. This led me to research this topic a bit and gather some more information so I could be better informed. I found an article in USA Today that ...