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Steady growth in use of medical imaging technologies that employ ionizing radiation leads to questions about long-term safety. Researchers used claims data from a healthcare insurer to assess radiation exposure from imaging procedures delivered to nearly 1 million adults (age range, 18–64) during a 3-year period; therapeutic radiation procedures (i.e., radiation for cancer treatment) were excluded.
During the study period, about 70% of all insured adults underwent at least one imaging procedure that was associated with ionizing radiation. The mean effective dose of radiation delivered was 2.4 millisieverts (mSv) annually, and the median was 0.1 mSv annually. Approximately 2% of the study population received high (20–50 mSv) and 0.2% received…