Trends of Increasing Medical Radiation Exposure in a Population Hospitalized for Cardiovascular Disease (1970–2009)

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Abstract

Background

High radiation doses employed in cardiac imaging may increase cancer frequency in exposed patients after decades. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relative trends in medical radiation exposure in a population hospitalized for cardiovascular disease.

Methods and Results

An observational single-center study was conducted to examine 16,431 consecutive patients with heart disease admitted to the Italian National Research Council Institute of Clinical Physiology between January 1970 and December 2009. In all patients, the cumulative estimated effective dose was obtained from data mining of electronic records of hospital admissions, adopting the effective dose typical values of the American Heart Association 2009 statement and Mettler’s 2008 catalog of doses. Cumulative estimated effective dose per patient in the last 5 years was 22 (12–42) mSv (median, 25 ^th–75 ^th percentiles), with higher values in ischemic heart disease (IHD), 37 (20–59) vs non-IHD, 13 (8–22) mSv, p<0.001. Trends in radiation exposure showed a steady increase in IHD and a flat trend in non-IHD patients, with variation from 1970–74 to 2005–2009 of +155% for IHD (p<0.001) and −1% in non-IHD (NS). The relative contribution of different imaging techniques was remodeled over time, with nuclear cardiology dominating in 1970s (23% of individual exposure) and invasive fluoroscopy in the last decade (90% of individual exposure).

Conclusion

A progressive increase in cumulative estimated effective dose is observed in hospitalized IHD patients. The growing medical radiation exposure may encourage a more careful justification policy regarding ionizing imaging in cardiology patients applying the two main principles of radiation protection: appropriate justification for ordering and performing each procedure, and careful optimization of the radiation dose used during each procedure.

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Most cited references 27

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Primary angioplasty versus intravenous thrombolytic therapy for acute myocardial infarction: a quantitative review of 23 randomised trials.

Ellen Keeley, Judith Boura, Cindy Grines (2003)

Many trials have been done to compare primary percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) with thrombolytic therapy for acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (AMI). Our aim was to look at the combined results of these trials and to ascertain which reperfusion therapy is most effective. We did a search of published work and identified 23 trials, which together randomly assigned 7739 thrombolytic-eligible patients with ST-segment elevation AMI to primary PTCA (n=3872) or thrombolytic therapy (n=3867). Streptokinase was used in eight trials (n=1837), and fibrin-specific agents in 15 (n=5902). Most patients who received thrombolytic therapy (76%, n=2939) received a fibrin-specific agent. Stents were used in 12 trials, and platelet glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors were used in eight. We identified short-term and long-term clinical outcomes of death, non-fatal reinfarction, and stroke, and did subgroup analyses to assess the effect of type of thrombolytic agent used and the strategy of emergent hospital transfer for primary PTCA. All analyses were done with and without inclusion of the SHOCK trial data. Primary PTCA was better than thrombolytic therapy at reducing overall short-term death (7% [n=270] vs 9% [360]; p=0.0002), death excluding the SHOCK trial data (5% [199] vs 7% [276]; p=0.0003), non-fatal reinfarction (3% [80] vs 7% [222]; p<0.0001), stroke (1% [30] vs 2% [64]; p=0.0004), and the combined endpoint of death, non-fatal reinfarction, and stroke (8% [253] vs 14% [442]; p<0.0001). The results seen with primary PTCA remained better than those seen with thrombolytic therapy during long-term follow-up, and were independent of both the type of thrombolytic agent used, and whether or not the patient was transferred for primary PTCA. Primary PTCA is more effective than thrombolytic therapy for the treatment of ST-segment elevation AMI.

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Exposure to low-dose ionizing radiation from medical imaging procedures.

Reza Fazel, Harlan M. Krumholz, Yongfei Wang … (2009)

The growing use of imaging procedures in the United States has raised concerns about exposure to low-dose ionizing radiation in the general population. We identified 952,420 nonelderly adults (between 18 and 64 years of age) in five health care markets across the United States between January 1, 2005, and December 31, 2007. Utilization data were used to estimate cumulative effective doses of radiation from imaging procedures and to calculate population-based rates of exposure, with annual effective doses defined as low ( 3 to 20 mSv), high (> 20 to 50 mSv), or very high (> 50 mSv). During the study period, 655,613 enrollees (68.8%) underwent at least one imaging procedure associated with radiation exposure. The mean (+/-SD) cumulative effective dose from imaging procedures was 2.4+/-6.0 mSv per enrollee per year; however, a wide distribution was noted, with a median effective dose of 0.1 mSv per enrollee per year (interquartile range, 0.0 to 1.7). Overall, moderate effective doses of radiation were incurred in 193.8 enrollees per 1000 per year, whereas high and very high doses were incurred in 18.6 and 1.9 enrollees per 1000 per year, respectively. In general, cumulative effective doses of radiation from imaging procedures increased with advancing age and were higher in women than in men. Computed tomographic and nuclear imaging accounted for 75.4% of the cumulative effective dose, with 81.8% of the total administered in outpatient settings. Imaging procedures are an important source of exposure to ionizing radiation in the United States and can result in high cumulative effective doses of radiation. 2009 Massachusetts Medical Society

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American College of Radiology white paper on radiation dose in medicine.

P. H. Butler, James Hevezi, K. Zeman … (2007)

The benefits of diagnostic imaging are immense and have revolutionized the practice of medicine. The increased sophistication and clinical efficacy of imaging have resulted in its dramatic growth over the past quarter century. Although data derived from the atomic bomb survivors in Japan and other events suggest that the expanding use of imaging modalities using ionizing radiation may eventually result in an increased incidence of cancer in the exposed population, this problem can likely be minimized by preventing the inappropriate use of such imaging and by optimizing studies that are performed to obtain the best image quality with the lowest radiation dose. The ACR, which has been an advocate for radiation safety since its inception in 1924, convened the ACR Blue Ribbon Panel on Radiation Dose in Medicine to address these issues. This white paper details a proposed action plan for the college derived from the deliberations of that panel.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Salomeh Keyhani: Role: Editor

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): PLoS One

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): PLoS ONE

Journal ID (publisher-id): plos

Journal ID (pmc): plosone

Title: PLoS ONE

Publisher: Public Library of Science (San Francisco, USA )

ISSN (Electronic): 1932-6203

Publication date Collection: 2012

Publication date (Electronic): 28 November 2012

Volume: 7

Issue: 11

Electronic Location Identifier: e50168

Affiliations

[1]CNR, Institute of Clinical Physiology, Pisa, Italy

University of California, San Francisco, United States of America

Author notes

* E-mail: clara@ 123456ifc.cnr.it

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Conceived and designed the experiments: CC. Performed the experiments: PL. Analyzed the data: CC CM PM. Wrote the paper: CC EP.

Article

Publisher ID: PONE-D-12-17232

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0050168

PMC ID: 3509131

PubMed ID: 23209665

SO-VID: 9f38d410-d62f-442b-b762-ab322dc2119a

License:

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

History

Date received : 15 June 2012

Date accepted : 22 October 2012

Page count

Pages: 6

Funding

The study was made possible by the SUIT-Heart (Stop Useless Imaging Testing in Heart Disease) grant of the ITT - Istituto Toscano Tumori of the Tuscany Region approved by the ethical Committee of Pisa University (Prot. N. 59959, October 1, 2010). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Trends of Increasing Medical Radiation Exposure in a Population Hospitalized for Cardiovascular Disease (1970–2009)

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Abstract

Background

Methods and Results

Conclusion

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Cardiovascular Innovations and Applications

Most cited references 27

Primary angioplasty versus intravenous thrombolytic therapy for acute myocardial infarction: a quantitative review of 23 randomised trials.

Exposure to low-dose ionizing radiation from medical imaging procedures.

American College of Radiology white paper on radiation dose in medicine.

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