CT scanner.
Two physicians at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, writing in JAMA Internal Medicine, report that increasing numbers of emergency department patients get computed tomography (CT) scans, including those unlikely to benefit and, indeed, those whom the scans may harm with excessive radiation.
Frank S. Drescher, M.D., and Brenda E. Sirovich, M.D., say that besides the immediate risk from ionizing radiation, “high-resolution CT scans may have unintended downstream consequences related to incidental findings and over-diagnosis, leading to a costly and potentially harmful diagnostic, therapeutic, or interventional cascade.”
In an accompanying editorial, Rebecca Smith-Bindman, M.D., and Andrew B. Bindman, M.D., attributed the increased use of CT scans in part to physicians increasingly depending on imaging for clinical management.
