Radiation Safety in Nuclear Cardiology-Current Knowledge and Practice: Results From the 2011 American Society of Nuclear Cardiology Member Survey

摘要

Nuclear stress testing is well recognized as an effective technique for diagnosing coronary disease, predicting patient outcomes, and guiding management. Numerous evidence-based appropriate indications and practice guideline recommendations have been published regarding accepted uses of nuclear stress tests (NSTs) across a wide spectrum of patients with known or suspected coronary disease. However, the approximate 10 million NSTs performed annually account for greater than 10% of the entire ionizing radiation burden to the US population. One recent study, while pointing out that cancer risk from a single NST is small, projected on a population level that NSTs may result in thousands of radiation-attributable cancers annually, partially offsetting their benefits.