Personalized Dose Reduction for Computed Tomography Scanning: Size Matters, so Does Prior Radiation Exposures

The article, “Acute Pancreatitis: Computed Tomography Utilization and Radiation Exposure Are Related to Severity but Not Patient Age” by Morgan et al¹ is timely and a valuable addition to the existing literature written on the subject of radiation dose in patients undergoing repetitive computed tomography (CT) scans. We agree with the points made by the authors and several other investigators who recently have written and commented on the subject of excessive radiation dose caused by imaging and its reduction. In this clinical setting, the referring physicians, gastroenterologists, surgeons, and radiologists should work together as a team to eliminate unnecessary routine CT scanning and utilize ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) if the needed information can be obtained with these nonionizing imaging modalities. However, if the desired information can be obtained only with CT, dose reduction techniques should be used that effectively reduce radiation dose to the patient without sacrificing diagnostic information.