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What Does This Knee X-ray Report Indicate?

Posted on Thu, 19 Nov 2015

Question: Hi Doctor,

patient is 65 year old female. Due to her numerous health issues she had to go thru radiations in the following ways.

Oct 1, 2014: Knee xray for arthiritis

2015 as following:

April 2nd,2015: Chest xray for heart issues

April 27, Nucler stress test for heart

May 4 : CT of chest as they found 9 mm lung nodule in chest xray which now shows only 3 MM in CT

May 22: CT of abdomen as the CT of chest was showing something in stomach

Plus she does Tooth xrays periodically with dentist

Now, the question is, doctors keep telling me that CT machines are safe now and not to worry etc. Now, with so much radiation in a year, how long should we wait for any next CT? or knee xray? for her arthiritis it is necessary to do xray once a year and to monitor her lung nodule it is necessary to do chest CT once a year. And also dentist does tooth xray every 6 months.

So my question is, how many knee xray, chest xray and CT is safe every year as per as radiation is concerned?

Thanks

Mr XXXXXXX

XXXX

Answered by Dr. Muhammad Ali Rauf (43 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Please see details

Detailed Answer:
Hello

Thank You for contacting HCM. My name is Dr Muhammad Ali Rauf & i will look into your problem.

I have gone through your query and would try to help you in the best possible way. Radiation exposure is measured in "rem". It varies for every procedure and even in single procedure radiation exposure is adjusted. So it becomes difficult to comment on exact dose. According to US NRC, total exposure by your patient is appx. 1814.5 mrem (10+400+700+700+1.5 x 3{for dental}).
These levels are only medical. There are some natural radiation exposure in the environment as well. According to FDA, annual dose should NOT exceed 5,000 mrem. So in any case radiation exposure should not be more than 5,000 mrem in a single year and a single dose should not exceed 3rem.

Hope I have answered your query. If you have any further questions I will be happy to help if not then don't forget to close the discussion and rate it.
Wishing you good health !!

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Muhammad Ali Rauf (14 minutes later)

Sir...thanks much...so if you can kindly simplify it with numbers as per following, i will highly appreciate.

1 On average , how many MREM IS IN A SINGLE DOSE CAT SCAN? or hoW many CT scans are ok per per on Chest and abdomen?
2 how many MREM is in Knee xrays in single dose and how many are ok per year for arthiritis?
3 how mant dental digital xrays are ok per year?

Thanks
Mr XXXXXXX
XXXX

Answered by Dr. Muhammad Ali Rauf (10 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Please see description

Detailed Answer:
Hello

You are welcome. I'll try to give best possible and available figures:

1. 700 mrem/ CT scan of one body part(chest or abdomen). If whole body CT is done then exposure will be 1000 mrem/scan. Number of scan per day or week depends upon the requirement in specific conditions and is decided by treating doctor and radiologist.

2. appx 1 mrem/knee scan. Usually patient is checked after every 6 months BUT it depends upon individual condition. If patient is doing fine then delay could be more while in case of active symptoms, scan can be repeated at an earlier time.

3. single dental image takes 1.5 mrem. As i mentioned earlier that upper limit is 5000 mrem so you can divide it by 1.5 which will make good amount of scans per year.

Thank You

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar