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La radiologia medica

, Volume 123, Issue 10, pp 788–798 | Cite as

Complete written/oral information about dose exposure in CT: is it really useful to guarantee the patients’ awareness about radiation risks?

  • Sergio Salerno
  • Cosimo Nardi
  • Chiara Tudisca
  • Domenica Matranga
  • Federica Vernuccio
  • Ambra Di Piazza
  • Valeria Selvi
  • Stefano Colagrande
RADIOBIOLOGY AND SAFETY
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:
  • 56 Downloads

Abstract

Aims and objectives

According to the European directive 2013/59/Euratom, starting from February 2018, the information relating to patient exposure will be part of computed tomography (CT) reports, but the impact of this information on patients has not been deeply evaluated. Aim of our study was to evaluate patients’ perception of radiation exposure related to routine CT and their understanding after communication of their dose exposure.

Materials and methods

A survey, investigating patient’s knowledge of radiation dose, was given to all adult patients (> 18 years) undergoing a CT examination both before and after CT scan. The first survey was the same for all patients. After CT scan, a second questionnaire was administered (after receiving the CT dose bill report and medical written and/or explanation about ionizing radiation risk). Results of the pre- and post-CT questionnaires responses were compared according to demographics characteristics and among the four post-CT groups.

Results

For some questions, statistically significant differences were found between the two centres. Seventy per cent of the patients answered that the presence of CT parameters in the report is considered useful. Even if not always statistically significant there was a slight increase in awareness of ionizing radiation risk comparing the pre- and post-CT surveys. The group that had both written and oral explanations had a better comprehension of CT dose bill (group III vs. I, p = 0.002).

Conclusion

The way of communication of ionizing radiation risks did not affect the results of the post-CT survey. Indeed, the interest in the topic did not rise in the post-CT survey in any of the group. Adequate information about ionizing radiation risks provided together with dose exposure information may be useful. However, there is not a standardized better way of communicating information on ionizing radiation risks due to CT.

Keywords

Radiation dose Dose bill Ionizing radiation risk Questionnaire Computed tomography 
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Notes

Compliance with ethical standards

Conflict of interest

All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical standards

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Copyright information

© Italian Society of Medical Radiology 2018

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Biopathology and Medical Biotechnology, Section of Radiological SciencesDIBIMED - University of PalermoPalermoItaly
  2. 2.Department of Experimental and Clinical Biomedical Sciences, Radiodiagnostic Unit n. 2University of Florence - Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria CareggiFlorenceItaly
  3. 3.Department of Sciences for Health Promotion and Mother and Child Care “G. D’Alessandro”University of PalermoPalermoItaly

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