The number of children being subjected to CT scan (computerized tomography) for abdominal pain has gone up considerably during the past decade, a new study says. This is an alarming trend as repeated CT scans is known to trigger cancer in children as they grow up.
Many studies have proved the excess use of CT posing health concern for children. A study published in The Lancet, earlier found children exposed to radiation during multiple CT scans at a higher risk of developing brain cancer and leukemia later in life. The study also found the radiation dose of a single CT scan 10 times higher than a normal x-ray procedure.
A study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics found the rates of CT imaging for children with abdominal pain going up from about one percent in 1998 to more than 15 percent in 2008.
"That is basically saying for every six or seven kids that go to the ER for belly ache, one is going to get a CT scan," Dr. Jahan Fahimi, who led the new work, told Reuters Health. "There have been a lot of studies showing we use CT scans a lot more, but it's unclear whether we are actually making a significant impact on the care we provide."
The findings bring concern as multiple CT scans escalate children's chances of developing cancer later in life.
"I tell my patients that the CAT scan I do today has a chance of causing cancer at some point down the road," Fahimi, an emergency physician at the University of California, San Francisco told Reuters Health. "That risk may be one in 500, it may be one in 1,000, but it's not zero."
For the study, Fahimi and colleagues looked at data from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Survey, conducted between 1998 and 2008. Six percent of the total 91,669 ED visits were to treat abdominal pain. Even though the rates of appendicitis diagnosis didn't change over the years, use of CT scan showed a shocking increase from 0.9 percent in 1998 to 15.4 percent in 2008.
Black and uninsured children were found receiving CT scan lesser than white and privately insured children.
