What proportion of CT scan patients are alive or deceased after 10 years?

Purpose: When discussing radiation risks for patients who undergo many CT examinations, some question the risks, believing that most of these patients are already very sick and likely to die within a few years, thus negating worry about radiation risk. This study seeks to evaluate the validity of this notion.

Methods: In this retrospective single large-hospital study, patients who received CT exams in 2013 were sorted into four cumulative effective dose (CED) groups: Group A (>0 to <10 mSv), Group B (10 to <50 mSv), Group C (50 to < 100 mSv), and Group D (≥100 mSv).

Dose, dose, dose, but where is the patient dose?

The article reviews the historical developments in radiation dose metrices in medical imaging. It identifies the good, the bad, and the ugly aspects of current-day metrices. The actions on shifting focus from International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) Reference-Man-based population-average phantoms to patient-specific computational phantoms have been proposed and discussed.

Bone-anchored prostheses for transfemoral amputation: a systematic review of outcomes, complications, patient experiences, and cost-effectiveness.

Introduction: Bone-anchored prostheses (BAP) are an advanced reconstructive surgical approach for individuals who had transfemoral amputation and are unable to use the conventional socket-suspension systems for their prostheses. Access to this technology has been limited in part due to the lag between the start of a new procedure and the availability of evidence that is required before making decisions about widespread provision. This systematic review presents as a single resource up-to-date information on aspects most relevant to decision makers, i.

Recurrent medical imaging exposures for the care of patients: one way forward.

Medical imaging is both valuable and essential in the care of patients. Much of this imaging depends on ionizing radiation with attendant responsibilities for judicious use when performing an examination. This responsibility applies in settings of both individual as well as multiple (recurrent) imaging with associated repeated radiation exposures.

Sex and gender differences in upper extremity prosthesis rejection: A review of literature.

Prosthesis rejection is a significant barrier to rehabilitation of persons with upper limb difference. Many individual factors can affect device rejection, including a person's sex or gender. The objective of this narrative review was to explore the reported differences between the sexes and genders in upper limb prosthesis rejection.

Impact of equipment technology on reference levels in fluoroscopy-guided gastrointestinal procedures.

Objectives: To evaluate the effect of equipment technology on reference point air kerma (K), air kerma-area product (P), and fluoroscopic time for fluoroscopically-guided gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures and establish benchmark levels.

Methods: This retrospective study included the consecutive patients who underwent fluoroscopically-guided gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures from May 2016 to August 2023 at a tertiary care hospital in the U.S.

Characterizing imaging radiation risk in a population of 8918 patients with recurrent imaging for a better effective dose.

An updated extension of effective dose was recently introduced, namely relative effective dose ( ), incorporating age and sex factors. In this study we extended application to a population of about 9000 patients who underwent multiple CT imaging exams, and we compared it with other commonly used radiation protection metrics in terms of their correlation with radiation risk. Using Monte Carlo methods, , dose-length-product based effective dose ( ), organ-dose based effective dose ( ), and organ-dose based risk index ( ) were calculated for each patient.

Is a one percent occurrence of high-dose patients significant?

Risk-free society is utopian. We come across risks in everyday life, and we use probabilities to get a feel of how risky a situation is. Risk probability numbers of around 1% are comforting, but an intercomparison of numbers among various low risks in popular situations can be enlightening.

Neurointerventions on two generations of angiography systems: Recent systems reduce radiation exposure by half.

Purpose: Fluoroscopically-guided neurointervention may be associated with prolonged procedure time and substantial radiation exposure to the patient and staff. This study sought to examine technological features affecting the potential radiation exposure reduction of new angiography systems, compared to older systems, for neurointerventional procedures.

Methods: Consecutive neurointerventional patients (2020-2022) were retrospectively analyzed.

Cumulative radiation exposure from multimodality recurrent imaging of CT, fluoroscopically guided intervention, and nuclear medicine.

Objectives: To assess cumulative effective dose (CED) over a 4-year period in patients undergoing multimodality recurrent imaging at a major hospital in the USA.

Methods: CED from CT, fluoroscopically guided intervention (FGI), and nuclear medicine was analyzed in consecutive exams in a tertiary care center in 2018-2021. Patients with CED ≥ 100 mSv were classified by age and body habitus (underweight, healthy weight, overweight, obese), as per body mass index percentiles < 5, 5 to < 85, 85 to < 95, and ≥ 95 (age 2-19 years), and its ranges < 18.

Global status of medical physics human resource - The IOMP survey report.

Purpose: Realizing the need for periodic surveys about global medical physics human resource, the International Organization for Medical Physics (IOMP) performed a third survey following the previous two (2015 and 2018). The objective was to collect information about the current numbers of medical physicists (MPs) in individual countries, about their MP training, and accreditation pathways.

Methods: The survey was designed using Google Forms.

Biomechanical characteristics of transfemoral bone-anchored prostheses during gait: A review of literature.

Background: Osseointegration (OI) is an emerging technique that allows a direct connection between the bone and a titanium metal implant, allowing the direct attachment of bone-anchored prostheses (BAP) to address the problems associated with socket prostheses. This review article aims to compare the biomechanical features of gait when using a transfemoral BAP in comparison to healthy gait, and in comparison to the gait of traditional transfemoral socket prosthesis users.

Methods: A computer-based literature search of electronic databases since inception (ranging from 1967 to 2004 depending on the database) to June 14, 2022, identified peer-reviewed articles focusing on the temporal-spatial, kinematic, kinetic, and electromyography data related to transfemoral BAP gait.

Losing the balance in risk-benefit analysis.

The idea of a benefit-risk analysis has been used for decades, but no one has probably bothered to see if there is a ratio or even questioned the concept because it does give an intuitive sense. There are situations where the tendency to lose the balance between the risk and benefit has been observed to move either towards benefit alone or risk alone. This may happen in medicine for benefit alone and in the nuclear industry for risk alone when public perceptions are involved.

A scoping review of eye tracking metrics used to assess visuomotor behaviours of upper limb prosthesis users.

Advanced upper limb prostheses aim to restore coordinated hand and arm function. However, this objective can be difficult to quantify as coordinated movements require an intact visuomotor system. Eye tracking has recently been applied to study the visuomotor behaviours of upper limb prosthesis users by enabling the calculation of eye movement metrics.

Do patients with larger body sizes undergo more CT exams?

Background: Overweight and obese patients are known to have more diseases than normal weight individuals, but it is currently unknown if there is higher utilization of computed tomography (CT) exams among those with larger body sizes.

Aims: To examine whether patients with larger body sizes undergo more CT exams and by how much more.

Methods: Using the recently described T-shirt size assessed from the lateral and transverse dimensions in CT localizer radiographs as a surrogate for body size, patients were classified into seven T-shirt sizes (XXS, XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL).

Patient follow-up for possible radiation injury from fluoroscopically-guided interventions: Need to consider high cumulative exposure from multiple procedures.

Purpose: Patient skin dose from interventional fluoroscopy procedures may exceed the threshold of tissue injuries and established guidelines recommend patient follow-up for air kerma at reference point (K) ≥ 5 Gy for individual procedures. Patients may undergo multiple procedures and skin injuries may be possible by cumulative exposure, even when individually insufficient to cause injury. This study sought to quantify the frequency of patients whose individual procedure doses are below 5 Gy but whose cumulative K is ≥ 5 Gy.

Variation in cystic fibrosis newborn screening algorithms in the United States.

Rationale: Cystic fibrosis (CF) newborn screening (NBS) algorithms in the United States vary by state. Differences in CF NBS algorithms could potentially affect the detection rate of CF newborns and lead to disparities in CF diagnosis amongst different racial and ethnic groups.

Objectives: Generate a database of CF NBS algorithms in the United States and identify processes that may potentially lead to missed diagnoses or lead to healthcare disparities.

Accounting for radiation exposure from previous CT exams while deciding on the next exam: What do referring clinicians think?

Purpose: To obtain clinicians' views of the need to account for radiation exposure from previous CT scans and the advisability of a regulatory mechanism to control the number of CT scans for an individual patient.

Methods: A convenience survey was conducted by emailing a link to a three-question electronic survey to clinicians in many countries, mostly through radiology and radiation protection contacts.

Results: 505 responses were received from 24 countries.

The International Organization for Medical Physics - a driving force for the global development of medical physics.

The International Organization for Medical Physics (IOMP) is the world's largest professional organization in the field of medical physics and has official non-governmental organization status with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). IOMP is charged with a mission to advance medical physics practice worldwide by disseminating scientific and technical information, fostering the educational and professional development of medical physics and promoting the highest quality medical services for patients. IOMP's activities are directed towards the promotion of medical physics globally, improving patient care, and contributing to the benefit of healthcare to the society.

T-shirt size as a classification for body habitus in computed tomography (CT) and development of size-based dose reference levels for different indications.

Purpose: To examine the impact of patient size on dose indices and develop size-based reference levels (50th and 75th percentiles) for 20 body CT exams for routine and organ-specific clinical indications.

Methods: Based on effective diameter estimated from adult body CT, each acquisition was classified into T-shirt size as XXS, XS, S, M, L, XL, and XXL. Radiation dose indices for each size and each exam type were correlated.