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scoliosis exams



From: Mary Ellen Jafari
Subject: scoliosis exams
To: MEDPHYS@cwis-20.wayne.edu

I had a question from an RSO regarding a 45 year old female patient who has thyroid cancer and who asked if there may have been any connection to the scoliosis films she had done when she was a child. She apparently had 12 films when she was 5 years old, 12 films the next year, and 34 more films between the ages of 7 and 15 (a total of 58 scoliosis films). I think it is an expected first reaction to dismiss her concern, but the thyroid was in the beam for these films and it is not known if any type of wedge filter was used in the cervical area to reduce the film density in that area. The dose would have been higher 40 years ago (as compared to today) due to the slower speed of the film/screen system. Use of single phase equipment would also have required higher techniques and thus resulted in higher dose to the patient. The RSO would like to find out more information on this topic and he has asked me to find out if anyone has done followup studies on scoliosis patients. Does anyone know of any publications on this topic? M.E. Jafari, M.S., DABR Western Radiological Physics, Inc. westrad@cyberhighway.net



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