[ RadSafe ] Fwd: Insulin Pumps and X-rays

[Dewolfe, James]

Thanks to everyone for feedback. 

It seems like an exceedingly bad idea to start applying "abundance of caution" (basically ALARA) to medical devices. I do hope they have more evidence for this than a reported failure during a radiation therapy at doses likely 1000 times higher than would be seen from scattered radiation from diagnostic x-ray and nuclear medicine patients. Logic would dictate that if the manufacturer is warning that their device could fail from radiation levels permissible to the general public and encountered in everyday situations, then they are basically saying the device is unsafe for general use. I would think regulatory bodies (In Colorado, it's the US FDA) should require the manufacturer to determine a safety level rather than permitting these unquantified warnings.

James DeWolfe 




-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Chris Alston
Sent: Sunday, December 11, 2016 11:16 AM
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Fwd: Insulin Pumps and X-rays

James

What, if any, is their advice *in re* travel by commercial airliner, especially very long-range transpolar flights?  If they do not advise against it, I'd take their advice about diagnostic radiations such as those found in ordinary radiography and nuclear medicine, with a grain or two of NaCl.

Maybe you could get a demo pump, set it up on a fluoro table, let the beam run on it until it had a bit of a toasting, but less than, say, 200 cGy, and see what happens.  Might make a nice note for *Operational Health Physics*, etc.

Cheers
ca
> On Dec 9, 2016, at 2:46 PM, Dewolfe, James <James.Dewolfe@
childrenscolorado.org> wrote:
> Multiple manufacturers of insulin pumps used by diabetics warn not to
expose the pump to x-rays, including diagnostic x-rays and CTs. One manufacturer warns not to wear them during nuclear medicine exams. They warn to keep them out of the same room as an x-ray machine (even dental units), so this is not a warning about the impact on image quality. Does anyone understand how these devices could be so sensitive to small amounts of radiation? I was asked about this today by a radiology technologist, and I was unable to answer his question. I am skeptical that these pumps could be that sensitive and still function in the real world with fluctuating background radiation.
>
> James DeWolfe | Health Physicist | Children's Hospital Colorado

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