Radiation dose management has come to the forefront of healthcare concerns with both patients and providers advocating for measures that will decrease and manage exposure. Research has shown that medical imaging has doubled the public’s exposure to ionizing radiation since the 1980s, and while this statistic includes fluoroscopy, angiography, mammography and standard X-ray, computed tomography (CT) has contributed the majority of the dose increase.

Data regarding screening of individuals at high risk for lung cancer with low-dose computed tomography (CT) presented at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) overestimates the costs and number of false positive exams due to its reliance on an outdated 4 mm size threshold for defining a positive screen.

There has been growing clinical evidence to show computed tomography (CT) coronary artery calcium scoring shows a close correlation with a person’s long-term risk for heart disease. This data convinced the American College of Cardiology (ACC) to include CT calcium scoring in its revised guidelines for prevention and cholesterol released last fall. In addition, the ACC highlighted the evidence for CT calcium scoring as a late breaking session at its 63rd Annual Scientific Session in March.