Citing significant variations in pediatric radiopharmaceutical doses and package inserts lacking pediatric doses, the authors of an article appearing in the November issue of Radiology indicated recently approved consensus guidelines for pediatric administered radiopharmaceutical doses may help solve the problem.
High-pitch, dual-source CT scanners may enable physicians to sustain diagnostic accuracy while allowing up to seven-fold reductions in pediatric radiation dose, according to a study presented this weekend at the Society of Cardiovascular CT (SCCT) in Denver.
Written by Clint vanSonnenberg
Allegations of inappropriate imaging and Medicare fraud are flying between a University of Iowa radiologist and university officials, who claim that Malik E. Juweid, MD, violated HIPAA by sending protected health information to Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), among other unauthorized officials.
Written by Clint vanSonnenberg
Radiation was brought to the fore within pediatric nuclear medicine following the release of a 2008 study which revealed a chaotic disarray of administered doses within North America’s premier pediatric institutions, including radiopharmaceutical doses varying by factors of as much as 10 in most children and by up to 20 in infants (J Nucl Med 2008; 49:1024–1027).
Implementation of Canadian Association of Radiology (CAR)-based decision support in a pediatric hospital showed little relevance of the guidelines to clinical cases and even poorer compliance, with physicians admitting that they often “blatantly cheated” to avoid using the program, according to a study published in the April edition of the Journal of the American College of Radiology.
CT utilization in EDs across the country is surging in pediatric patients; whereas 1.2 percent of children admitted to the ED received CT scans in 1995, that percentage grew to nearly 6 percent by 2008, leading the authors of a study published April 5 in Radiology to reiterate calls for close scrutiny of CT use, especially among children.
Presenting last week at a National Institutes of Health (NIH) summit on managing CT radiation dose in Bethesda, Md., representatives from the American College of Radiology (ACR) discussed initiatives for minimizing CT radiation dose ranging from technology and education to public policy and voluntary reporting.
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