{"id":1597,"date":"2016-01-06T15:04:28","date_gmt":"2016-01-06T20:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=1597"},"modified":"2016-01-06T15:04:28","modified_gmt":"2016-01-06T20:04:28","slug":"heavy-use-of-ct-scans-raises-concerns-about-patients-exposure-to-radiation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=1597","title":{"rendered":"Heavy Use Of CT Scans Raises Concerns About Patients\u2019 Exposure To Radiation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(By &#8211; Sandra G. Boodman, Kaiser Health News)<\/p>\n<p>Jean Hanvik decided that enough was enough. When a painful intestinal inflammation flared in 2014, the 55-year-old benefits communications consultant balked at her doctor\u2019s recommendation that she undergo another abdominal CT scan \u2014 her fourth in eight years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d just read about how abdominal CTs are one of the highest-risk tests [in terms of radiation exposure] and should not be repeated unless there was a major change,\u201d said Hanvik, who lives in Minneapolis. In the past, antibiotics and a bland diet had quelled her recurrent diverticulitis. Hanvik said she wanted to follow that approach again but avoid a scan, which contains about 10 millisieverts (mSv) of radiation, the rough equivalent of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.consumerreports.org\/cro\/magazine\/2015\/01\/the-surprising-dangers-of-ct-sans-and-x-rays\/index.htm\" target=\"_blank\">200 chest X-rays<\/a>\u00a0or <a href=\"http:\/\/archives.republicans.energycommerce.house.gov\/Media\/file\/Hearings\/Health\/20120608\/HHRG-112-IF14-Wstate-SmithBindmanR-20120608.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">1,500 dental X-rays<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Kaiser Health News\u00a0is\u00a0a nonprofit national health policy news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-899 \" src=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1-300x156.png\" alt=\"khn-logo1\" width=\"92\" height=\"48\" srcset=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1-300x156.png 300w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1-1024x533.png 1024w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1-390x205.png 390w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1.png 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 92px) 100vw, 92px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<pre><strong>Notice<\/strong>: The link provided above connects readers to the full content of the posted article. The URL (internet address) for this link is valid on the posted date; medicarereport.org cannot guarantee the duration of the link\u2019s validity. Also, the opinions expressed in these postings are the viewpoints of the original source and are not explicitly endorsed by AMAC, Inc.; the AMAC Foundation, Inc.; or medicarereport.org.<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(By &#8211; Sandra G. Boodman, Kaiser Health News) Jean Hanvik decided that enough was enough. When a painful intestinal inflammation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-medicare-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1597"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1598,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1597\/revisions\/1598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}