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Quality Initiatives

Radiation Risk: What You Should Know to Tell Your Patient¹

¹ From the University Institute for Radiation Physics (F.R.V., F.B., A.A.) and Department of Radiology (F.G., P.S., R.M.), University Hospital Center and University of Lausanne (CHUV), Grand-Pré 1, 1007 Lausanne, Switzerland. Recipient of a Certificate of Merit award for an education exhibit at the 2007 RSNA Annual Meeting. Received February 29, 2008; revision requested April 2 and received May 20; accepted May 28. All authors have no financial relationships to disclose. Address correspondence to F.R.V. (e-mail: francis.verdun{at}chuv.ch).

The steady increase in the number of radiologic procedures being performed is undeniably having a beneficial impact on healthcare. However, it is also becoming common practice to quantify the health detriment from radiation exposure by calculating the number of cancer-related deaths inferred from the effective dose delivered to a given patient population. The inference of a certain number of expected deaths from the effective dose is to be discouraged, but it remains important as a means of raising professional awareness of the danger associated with ionizing radiation. The risk associated with a radiologic examination appears to be rather low compared with the natural risk. However, any added risk, no matter how small, is unacceptable if it does not benefit the patient. The concept of diagnostic reference levels should be used to reduce variations in practice among institutions and to promote optimal dose indicator ranges for specific imaging protocols. In general, the basic principles of radiation protection (eg, justification and optimization of a procedure) need to be respected to help counteract the unjustified explosion in the number of procedures being performed.

© RSNA, 2008

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