Radiation dose during CT scans used to diagnose heart and vascular disease is a concern for many patients as they may be equivalent to 600 chest X-rays, according to a new study, published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The researchers concluded that radiation exposure from a single, new-generation CT imaging test was equivalent to exposure from 600 conventional chest X-rays.

 

An advisory committee convened by the American Heart Association’s Council on Clinical Cardiology and Council on Cardiovascular Radiology and Intervention recommends that people without chest pain or other symptoms who have a low risk of heart disease should not use these scans.

Studies have shown that newer CT scans that use multiple X-rays to produce spectacular 3-D images for the heart are beneficial in identifying patients who need treatment, but they aren’t ready to replace the standard procedure of coronary angiography.

 

These types of tests use a multiple dye and multiple radiation-generating X-rays, which are assembled into a three-dimensional image of the heart. More and more doctors are recommending CT scanning to their patients and the number of those who chose this method is expected to rise in the following years.

 

Overuse of CT scans and the subsequent exposure to dangerous radiation from X-rays could pose a risk of cancer. Children are more vulnerable to radiation because their tissues are more sensitive to the effects of radiation.

“Not all cardiac CT is evil,” Dr. Thomas Gerber, co-author of the study and associate professor of medicine and radiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn, noted. “It is valuable in patients who have symptoms of heart disease.”