CT scan, children are at high risk of brain cancer

Scientists in the UK, Canada and the United States have found that children who have had CT scans two to three times are three times more likely to develop brain cancer later in life than other children, according to Reuters.

>>>Scan the brain to identify lazy people, capable people

Researchers also found that children infected with radioactivity were accumulated from five to 10 times of CT scans, ie double-energy computerized tomography, had a three-fold higher risk of leukemia than children without radiation exposure. CT scan.

This conclusion was made after scientists studied nearly 180,000 patients under the age of 22 who had a CT scan from 1985 - 2002 at a hospital in England.

The head of an 8-year-old child showed up on a computer screen when CT was taken - (Photo: AFP)

From the medical records, the researchers collected the number and type of CT scans as well as the amount of radiation absorbed by the patient's brain and bone marrow from each CT scan.

Later, this data was collated with records of cancer cases and deaths from this disease from 1985 - 2008 at the UK National Health Service Registry (UKNHSR).

The results showed that, among the monitored patients, 135 had brain cancer and 75 had leukemia.

However, the new study has no comparison between children with CT scans and children without CT scans, according to AFP.

Photos taken with CT are often used to diagnose children with head injuries.

In order to avoid the above risk, the researchers propose to reduce the amount of radiation to the extent possible or use other methods for cases where CT scanning is not necessary.

However, a previous study suggested using ultrasound technology, which is not radioactive, to replace CT scans, which results in poor results.

The new study has just been published in the Lancet journal.