However, this modality is unique because only a small percentage of the population is exposed, consisting of individuals battling life-threatening illnesses such as cancer. In addition to the abovementioned modalities, external beam radiotherapy also exposes patients to radiation. It is thus evident that CT imaging is the biggest contributor to medical radiation exposure. A decade later, this figure had risen dramatically to 70 million.

In the late 1990s, approximately 26 million CT examinations were performed in the United States. CT scans are associated with high radiation exposure What are the most commonly performed radiographic examinations? For this reason, international and national bodies legislate patient radiation exposure from medical examinations. If radiation protection in digital radiology is not carefully regulated, millions of people could receive radiation exposure without concurrent benefit. The magnitude of risk from ionizing radiation is related to dose. Dose savings of 50 percent or more are possible with digital imaging technology compared to film-screen radiography. The use of digital technology in radiology examinations has the potential to lower the radiation dose, but it can also increase the dose delivered to patients if used incorrectly. The tremendous growth in the use of radiation-based medical imaging has improved diagnosis and disease management, but it has raised concerns about the risks of ionizing radiation. Growth in Radiation-Based Imaging Studies To learn more about the history of medical imaging, read our paperless e-course which is worth 2 ARRT ® credits. It is also noteworthy that occupational exposure to radiation occurs primarily in the medical and aviation professions. This increase has been driven primarily by CT scans and interventional cardiology procedures. In the 1980s, only 15 percent of all artificial radiation exposure was on account of medical imaging by the mid-2000s, this figure had risen to almost 50 percent.Īlthough natural background radiation exposure has not changed substantially, human exposure to radiation has increased by more than 30 percent in the past few decades, mainly due to an increase in the number of medical imaging examinations performed. This number skyrocketed to nearly 300 million by the mid-2000s. In 1950, approximately 25 million radiographic and fluoroscopic exams were performed.

This has resulted in a substantial increase in the radiation dose humans are exposed to. Over the past several decades, the use of ionizing radiation in medical imaging has increased dramatically.

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