Magnetic resonance imaging and the acute abdomen (Br J Surg 2008; 95: 1193–1194)

✍ Scribed by R. J. Alexander; C. Lee-Elliott; G. F. Nash

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 54 KB
• Volume: 96
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0007-1323
• DOI: 10.1002/bjs.6474

✦ Synopsis

Sir

We read this article with great interest and were surprised and somewhat concerned about the stated risk of cancer induction in 25-year-olds being as high as 1 in 900 for a single CT abdomen 1,2 . If this is accurate then it behoves the clinician to always weigh up the risk-benefit of CT scans, especially in the young.

Currently in our region, MRI is significantly slower (30 min for abdominal protocol) compared with the 32 multi-slice CT (2-5 min for a contrast enhanced protocol), is more challenging to report and is rarely available in the acute setting. So, in the ill patient, sometimes the best test is the one that gets done. Not forgetting that the stated single CT scan radiation dose in the young corresponds to a minimal change in lifetime cancer risk from 1 in 3 3 to 1 in 2•99.