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The Food and Drug Administration just issued a new warning about the risks of overexposure to radiation during CT scan medical imaging procedures done as part of diagnosing strokes and other conditions.

At one unspecified location, patients undergoing CT brain perfusion scans to detect strokes were subjected to doses of radiation that were about eight times the normal level, which resulted in “significant” health consequences. The FDA did not say where the dangerous diagnostic scans were administered or how many patients were affected.

However, the Los Angeles Times reported late Friday that the FDA warning stemmed from accidental radiation overdoses involving more than 200 patients who were treated at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center over a span of about 18 months.

Some patients exposed to overdoses of radiation suffered hair loss and reddening of the skin, hospital and FDA officials said, according to the Times. The hospital reportedly discovered the overdoses in August after a patient complained of losing patches of hair following a CT scan.

The FDA said the radiation overdoses may not be an isolated problem and that all hospitals should be on guard against accidents.

“This situation may reflect more widespread problems with CT quality assurance programs and may not be isolated to this particular facility or this imaging procedure,” the FDA said.

Medical Imaging Radiation a Growing Concern

Radiation overdoses during CT scans and other types of diagnostic medical imaging have been an increasing area of concern for the FDA. In August, a medical study concluded that younger Americans are at increased risk of developing deadly cancers due to undergoing too many medical imaging procedures, which expose them to small doses of radiation. Over time, those accumulated doses can result in serious health consequences, the study warned.

If patients receive doses of radiation that are higher than the expected level but not high enough to produce obvious signs of radiation injury, the problem may go undetected and unreported, putting patients at increased risk for long-term radiation effects, the FDA said.

Still, the FDA said while unnecessary radiation exposure should be avoided, a medically-needed CT scan has benefits that outweigh the radiation risks.

FDA Urges Caution in Medical Imaging

As a result of the problems noted with radiation overexposure during CT scans, the FDA is encouraging medical facilities to carefully review their policies for the exams in order to reduce the risks. The agency said medical professionals should make sure that the values displayed on CT scan equipment reasonably correspond to the doses normally associated with the protocol, in order to reduce the risks of accidental overexposure.

Those values should then be confirmed again after the patient has been scanned to make sure the proper does were administered, the FDA said.

Related posts:

1. Class-Action Suit Filed Over Botched CT Scans An Alabama woman has filed a class-action lawsuit against the...
2. CT Scan Radiation Injury Toll Rises to 250 Patients Another 50 patients have been added to the list of...
3. More Patients Linked to Radiation Overdoses From Botched CT Scans The number of stroke patients who were exposed to potentially...
4. Hundreds Sue Over Dangerous Radiation Exposure From Botched CT Scans More than 200 patients have filed a class-action lawsuit against...
5. Too Many in U.S. are Exposed to Harmful Medical Imaging Radiation, Researchers Say Younger Americans are at greater risks of developing deadly cancers...

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 9th, 2009 at 2:18 pm and is filed under Legal Briefs, Medical Malpractice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.