open access: Cancer risks associated with external radiation from diagnostic imaging procedures - Linet - 2012 - CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians

Blogger's Note: extensive (long) analysis; important to assess individual circumstances and as the research article indicates - risk vs benefit

 

Recommendations for Clinicians

• 1
  Become knowledgeable about the radiation doses for the imaging studies.
• 2
  Consider ultrasound and MRI when these are appropriate alternatives since these procedures do not subject the patient to ionizing radiation.172, 236
• 3
  Do not order a higher radiation dose study if a lower dose study (or an imaging study that does not use ionizing radiation) can provide the clinical information needed.
• 4
  All requests for imaging studies should be justified (eg, when all benefits and risks are considered, the study should be expected to do more good than harm).
• 5
  Available aids for justification, such as the ACR's Appropriateness Criteria and the ACC's Appropriate Use Criteria for Cardiac Computed Tomography, should be utilized to provide guidance for choosing the most appropriate imaging examination.
• 6
  Unnecessary imaging studies (duplicate studies and those that are not medically necessary) should not be performed.
• 7
  In general, neither screening nor elective x-ray examinations should be performed on pregnant women.
• 8
  Refer patients who require imaging studies to a facility that strives to optimize radiation dose, so that imaging is performed with the least amount of radiation necessary to provide adequate image quality.