I had some very mild abdominal pain and also my blood test showed inflammation.?!
Question: My doctor prescribed abdominal CAT scan. Is it overkill?
Is it possible to diagnose and treat symptoms withot additional radiation? I had a lot of exposure to radiation before and am scared to have this CAT scan. Is it true that CAT scans are causing a lot of cancers?
Answers: My doctor prescribed abdominal CAT scan. Is it overkill?
Is it possible to diagnose and treat symptoms withot additional radiation? I had a lot of exposure to radiation before and am scared to have this CAT scan. Is it true that CAT scans are causing a lot of cancers?
Without knowing what the doc is looking for, its hard to say if this is over kill. The cancer risk from X-ray type radiation is proportional to the cumulative exposure to all previous radiation of this type. There's nothing unique about the radiation from CAT scans its the same as an x-ray and radiation in the atmosphere. A CAT scan adds one more increment to the total amount of radiation exposure - about the same amount as being three years older. This isn't a huge risk, but its a risk that can be avoided if you choose to. An MRI is an alternative, but its difficult to get someone to sit still long enough to get a high-quality MRI image of he abdomen, and the machine is hard on people who are claustrophobic.