Dangers of Radiation to Young Adults Due to Cardiac Testing

Researchers have concluded that nearly 1 in 10 adults under the age of 65 have had exposure to radiation from cardiac testing over a three year period.

When 90,000 non-elderly patients underwent a cardiac imagery procedure, researchers found that for every 1,000 patients, 89 received an effective dose of ionizing radiation. The radiation they received was greater than the amount patients normally receive when exposed to background radiation from natural sources.

Extrapolating those results, up to 636,000 people would be at risk from a high dosage of ionizing radiation from cardiac imaging. Currently, the health implications and potential cancer risks aren’t easy to analyze since the benefits of cardiac imaging counteract the negatives of ionizing radiation. The benefits of cardiac imaging includes the potential to catch and treat life-threatening heart problems.

Since the radiation from cardiac imaging accounts for 30 percent of total annual exposure to radiation from all medical testing, many doctors and cardiologists feel they have certain responsibilities to adhere to. Yet others, such as Dr. Matthew J. Budoff and Dr. Mohit Gupta of Harbor UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California feel that the cancer risks from medical radiation are not properly analyzed. In fact, they indicate that the risk of cancer remains strictly hypothetical.

As younger patients grow older, some may experience long-term complications from medical radiation. Researchers suggest that younger patients use alternative imaging modalities without ionizing radiation. Researchers indicated some alternatives such as stress echocardiography or exercise testing without imagery may be a safer choice.