Doctor, is a CT scan safe for my child?

Abstract

Medical professionals and international organizations have promoted radiation protection for patients since the early 1900s when organizations such as the British Roentgen Society and American Roentgen Ray Society were founded.1 However, it was the 2007 article by Brenner and Hall2 and the release of such publications as the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement's Report 160 that prompted the much needed public debate in the media and by the public on increasing radiation exposure from CT scans.3,4 Within the past 15 months, three large epidemiological studies, including the most recent one by Miglioretti et al,5 have assessed the risk of cancer due to CT imaging in children.6,7 The purpose of this commentary is to consider whether the Miglioretti article and the other two research studies on radiation protection in children should impact parents' perception of CT safety for their child. Do these articles help answer a parent's most common and difficult question, “Doctor, is a CT scan safe for my child?” The Miglioretti study had 3 main findings: estimates of the rates of CT scan use in children younger than 15 years from a population comprising 4 857 736 child-years; estimates of organ and effective doses using a credible new measure based on sex- and age-specific computational anatomic phantoms in a subpopulation of 744 randomly selected CT scans; and assessment of the projected excess lifetime cancer risk attributed to CT scans in this population.5