Assessment of radiation-induced cancer risk to patients undergoing computed tomography angiography scans

Background: computed tomography angiography (cta) scan is a suitable imagingtechnique to evaluate the blood vessels. however, one major disadvantage is thepoten al risk of cancer related to ionizing radia on exposure during theprocedures. the aim of this inves ga on was to es mate the risk of exposureinduced cancer death (reid) values for some common computed tomographyangiography (cta) scans. materials and methods: the scan parameters andpa ent gender and age were collected for a total of 251 pa ents undergoing ctascans of the head (51), caro d (50), abdomen (50), thoracic (50) and the lowerextremi es (50). the effec ve diameter, scan length, effec ve tube current and thedose-length product (dlp) values were obtained for each pa ent. the organ dosesand the effec ve dose were calculated by the impactdose program. the reidvalues were es mated for the different cta scans by the calculated organ dosesand corresponding age- and sex- specific risk factors. results: the reid values forthe cta scans of head were 17±4 and 20±3 per million, caro d were 35±9 and67±14 per million, the lower extremi es were 60±26 and 64±24 per million,thoracic were 97±28 and 204±72 per million, and for abdomen were 101±25and 194±72 per million, for males and females, respec vely. conclusion: theresults of this inves ga on showed that cta scans are associated withnon-negligible risk of exposure induced cancer. a varia on in radia on cancer riskas a func on of age and gender of the pa ents was demonstrated and found thatthe younger female pa ents were at the highest risk.