Education Program Developed to Reduce Radiation Dose During CT Angiograms

A new education program helps physicians reduce the radiation dose to patients during a computed tomography angiogram (CTA).

When properly performed, radiation doses during CTA are in the low dose ranges, well below the amount that has been attributed to creating a health risk. However, if physicians and technologists are not monitoring the dose and are not following simple guidelines, radiation administered can be significantly higher than it needs to be. CVCTA Education (San Francisco, CA, USA) addresses this problem with their new Low Dose initiative. This easy to follow program will augment CVCTA's existing dose reduction curriculum and will be taught to the hundreds of CVCTA Education students as well as graduates.

"When it comes to radiation dose in cardiac CT, there is a smart and proactive way to reduce it or one can ignore it. We have heard anecdotal reports of doses of 30 mSV for CCTA. Using the Low Dose method for every scan, the doses should be no more than 8 mSV for the average patient,” said Dr. Tony DeFrance, medical director of CVCTA Education. "I am 6 foot 2 inches [tall], 200 lbs, and I had a CTA last week with only 6 mSV dose. As part of our training program, we emphasize these simple dose reduction techniques to ensure maximum patient care at minimum risk.”

CVCTA Education's Low Dose initiative follows this simple mnemonic: length of scan minimized; optimized X-ray parameters and gating technique to the individual; working with vendors to optimize the system; dose modulation; operator training (CT technologist and physician); scrutinize the effective dose on each case; and evaluate dose at regular intervals and implement changes to minimize it.

"CTA can rule out heart disease with greater than 99% accuracy. Heart disease is the number one killer in the US. The largest study to date has shown that the average age of a CTA patient is 61 years old. The benefit of ruling out the number one killer of Americans significantly outweighs the less than 0.002% chance of inducing a radiation-induced cancer in this population,” said Dan Gebow, Ph.D., president of CVCTA Education. "However, common sense dictates that responsible physicians take an active role to make sure the dose remains minimal.”

Nearly 1,000 students have trained at CVCTA Education due to their commitment to high-quality education. "The role of the medical societies is to set the guidelines and to ensure that accurate information about the benefits and risks of this diagnostic test is being disseminated to the public and medical community. There is still a great deal of work to be done in that arena,” said Mr. Gebow. "As the leader in hands-on training, CVCTA Education's expertise is the practical, real world clinical application of CCTA. Therefore, we have taken the Low Dose initiative with our students to make sure this tool is used wisely.”

CVCTA Education designs and provides innovative medical educational programs. It has centers in San Francisco, CA, USA, New York, NY, USA, and Houston, TX, USA, to provide its courses to the medical community. CVCTA trains physicians in performing, post-processing, and interpreting cardiac CT angiograms as well as peripheral vascular CTA.


Related Links:
CVCTA Education