Gut Liver.  2014 Jul;8(4):380-387.

Radiation Exposure from Abdominal Imaging Studies in Patients with Intestinal Behcet Disease

• Jung YS
• Park DI
• Moon CM
• Park SJ
• Hong SP
• Kim TI
• Kim WH
• Cheon JH

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS
Recently, several studies have revealed that diagnostic imaging can result in exposure to harmful levels of ionizing radiation in inflammatory bowel disease patients. However, the extent of radiation exposure in intestinal Behcet disease (BD) patients has not been documented. The aim of this study was to estimate the radiation exposure from abdominal imaging studies in intestinal BD patients.
METHODS
Patients with a diagnosis of intestinal BD established between January 1990 and March 2012 were investigated at a single tertiary academic medical center. The cumulative effective dose (CED) was calculated retrospectively from standard tables and by counting the number of abdominal imaging studies performed. High exposure was defined as CED >50 mSv.
RESULTS
In total, 270 patients were included in the study. The mean CED was 41.3 mSv, and 28.1% of patients were exposed to high levels of radiation. Computed tomography (CT) accounted for 81.7% of the total effective dose. In multivariate analyses, predictors of high radiation exposure were azathioprine/6-mercaptopurine use, surgery, and hospitalization.
CONCLUSIONS
Approximately a quarter of intestinal BD patients were exposed to harmful levels of diagnostic radiation, mainly from CT examination. Clinicians should reduce the number of unnecessary CT examinations and consider low-dose CT profiles or alternative modalities such as magnetic resonance enterography.

Keyword

Intestinal Behcet disease; Clinical course; Prognostic factors; Radiation

MeSH Terms

Abdomen/radiation effects
Adult
Behcet Syndrome/*radiography
Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation
Female
Humans
Intestinal Diseases/*radiography
Male
Radiation Dosage
Retrospective Studies
Risk Factors