Child CT Scans Might Up Risk of Brain Cancer, Leukemia

Although the risk is small, radiation doses should be kept low, experts say

June 7, 2012 RSS Feed Print

Michael Gomez, a nuclear medicine technologist, talks to a patient before a positron emission tomography cat scan, or PET-CT, at River Radiology in Kingston, N.Y.

How will the scan improve my child's care?
Is the facility accredited by the American College of Radiology?
Will the radiation dose be "child-sized?"

Recently, to make sure children are not exposed to more radiation than necessary when they get X-rays or CT scans, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asked the makers of these devices to factor in the safety of pediatric patients when using existing machines and designing new ones.

If the manufacturers can't show their equipment is safe for children, the FDA wants labels on the machines that say so.

More information

For more about imaging tests, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.