How Have CT Scans Become More Safe and Efficient Over Time? - NBC29 WVIR Charlottesville, VA News, Sports and Weather

Computerized Tomography - better known as a CT scan - is a test that is used by doctors to diagnose patients with a variety of conditions.

Radiation is used during the test, but new software, and improved equipment has enabled the levels of radiation a patient receives at Martha Jefferson to be reduced by as much as 40 percent.

"We follow a principle called ‘ALARA', or as low as reasonably allowed," said Dr. Jon Ciambotti, a radiologist at Martha Jefferson. "Every study you get, we use the minimum amount of radiation necessary to generate diagnostic pictures."

To doctors, the benefits of the CT scan far outweigh the small risk of radiation, and can keep patients out of the operating room.

"When I first went to medical school and you were in a car accident and then had belly pain, if we weren't sure what was going on, you went to the operating room and they would cut you open and looked around inside your belly," said Ciambotti. "Now, if the same thing happened, you'd go to a CT scanner and within five minutes we know exactly what's going on."

Ciambotti says the improvements have revolutionized medicine, and patients are much happier to have a quick CT scan instead of an operation.

Martha Jefferson provides CT services at several locations, and low dose radiation is offered at each site.

For more information on this topic, call Health Connection at (434) 654-7009.

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