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The rising use of diagnostic imaging is associated with more radiation exposure. In this study, researchers used data from six U.S. healthcare systems and associated insurance plans that enrolled 1 to 2 million patients annually from 1996 to 2010. The overall rate of imaging was similar across the six plans (range, 1218–1680 imaging procedures/1000 enrollees/year), but specific modalities varied widely across sites (e.g., comparing highest to lowest plan, magnetic resonance imaging [MRI] varied by 1.6-fold; angiography/fluoroscopy varied by 4.5-fold).
Use of plain radiography rose by only 1% annually from 1996 to 2010, but use of computed tomography (CT) rose by 8% annually, MRI rose by 10% annually, ultrasound rose by 4% annually, and posit…