Children and Radiology: Is It Safe?

Most everyone knows the need for safety when having radiological imaging, but kids may be more sensitive. The risk for the individual from X-ray and other imaging is very small compared to the benefits that the imaging can provide in helping with an accurate diagnosis. Still, unnecessary exposure to radiation during medical procedures should be avoided if possible. This is particularly important when this treatment involves a child.

Children could possibly be more sensitive to the radiation received from medical imaging scans that adults are. One factor to consider is that children have more cells that divide rapidly that can be exposed to the low-level radiation. Also, they have a longer expected lifetime for the effects of the radiation exposure to manifest itself as cancer. This is why it is very important that with children, it is necessary that the lowest dose of radiation be used for providing an image from which an accurate diagnosis can be made from the scan.

The FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) regulates the devices for medical imaging. Among the CDRH's responsibilities, they help consumers stay informed about minimizing unnecessary radiation exposure during medical procedures. The emphasis on information about radiological imaging is why the CDRH is assisting Image Gently, a national initiative of the Alliance for Radiation Safety in Pediatric Imaging. Image Gently aims to educate all parent and physicians about the special precautions that are required for children to undergo radiological imaging.

Participants in the campaign for Image Gently include the American College of Radiology, the Society for Pediatric Radiology, the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, the American Society of Radiologic Technologist. The FDA has included the links to Image Gently Web pages, helping the initiative get the message out about the regulations for radiological imaging and children.

The campaigns first focus is on child-safety awareness with the computed tomography (CT) scans. CT scans are taken in large machines that contain a round hole and a chamber like a tunnel. The patients lie on their back on a table that slides into this chamber, where the X-ray chamber rotates around the patient and snaps pictures offering the health care professionals three-dimensional views of the bones, soft tissues, internal organs, and blood vessels. CT scans have helped improved the diagnosis and the care for conditions such s brain disorders, cancer, cardiovascular illnesses, and hear disease. Unfortunately, this technology does expose the patients to a higher dose of radiation that most other radiological exams. The Food and Drug Administrations has long been involved in notifying the public and health care professionals about reducing the risk of radiation from the CT for pediatric and small adult patients.

Here are some helpful tips for parents to consider:

• Talk with your child's doctor. They will know or can find out if the imaging center which they will refer you too uses the appropriate CT scanning techniques for children, and if find out if a test not using radiation might be as useful to your child as the radiation imaging.
• Be sure that the imaging facility you will be going to is using the appropriate reduced radiation techniques. The parents may not know unless they ask, and it is reasonable and well within your rights to ask.
• Learn ways that your health care professional can lower and limit the amount of radiation dose in the CT imaging of children without compromising the diagnostic quality. Feel free to ask questions.
• Check the facilities credentials. Find out whether the facility has American College of Radiology accreditation or whether the CT technologists have appropriate credentials, and if the person that is interpreting the studies is a pediatric radiologist or a board-certified radiologist.