Journal of the Chinese Medical Association
Volume 73, Issue 4 , Pages 199-204, April 2010

Health Effects of Medical Radiation on Cardiologists Who Perform Cardiac Catheterization

  • Mei-Kang Yuan

      Affiliations

    • Department of Radiology, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
    • ,
  • Ching-Wen Chien

      Affiliations

    • Department of Institute of Hospital and Health Care Administration, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorrespondence to: Dr Ching-Wen Chien, Institute of Hospital and Health Care Administration, National Yang-Ming University, 155, Section 2, Linong Street, Taipei 112, Taiwan, R.O.C.
    • ,
  • San-Kan Lee

      Affiliations

    • Department of Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
    • ,
  • Nai-Wei Hsu

      Affiliations

    • Department of Internal Medicine, National Yang-Ming University Hospital, I-Lan, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
    • ,
  • Shih-Chieh Chang

      Affiliations

    • Department of Internal Medicine, National Yang-Ming University Hospital, I-Lan, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
    • ,
  • Shu-Ju Chang

      Affiliations

    • Department of Department of Industrial Management and Enterprise Information, Aletheia University, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
    • ,
  • Gau-Jun Tang

      Affiliations

    • Department of Institute of Hospital and Health Care Administration, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Received 1 September 2009; received in revised form 11 January 2010

Background

We investigated the health effects of low-dose radiation on cardiologists exposed to scattered radiation while performing cardiac catheterization (CC) in a hospital setting from 2003 to 2006.

Methods

We performed a 4-year retrospective study on 2, 292 medical doctors, using claims data from all contracted hospitals of the Bureau of National Health Insurance, Taiwan. We gathered statistical data regarding radiation-related diseases using the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification record numbers of each doctor.

Results

Of the 2,292 doctors evaluated, 1,721 were aged 35–50 years and the remaining 571 were aged 51–65 years. There were 892 cardiologists who performed CC (experimental group), and the majority of these (733/892, 82.17%) were aged 35–50 years. There were 1,400 medical doctors who performed no CC from 2003 to 2006 (control group). A total of 988 of these belonged to the 35–50 years age group and 412 to the 51–65 years group. In the 35–50 years group, the controls had significantly more medical visits for hematological and thyroid cancer (p <0.05), skin disease (p <0.001), and acute upper respiratory tract infection (p <0.001) compared with the experimental group. In contrast, cardiologists who performed catheterization had more cataracts compared with the control group, but this difference was not significant.

Conclusion

Doctors who did not perform CC had more visits for radiation-related diseases than those who performed catheterization. In the experimental group, cardiologists aged 35–50 years who were exposed to radiation during CC had more visits for cataracts than the control group. We recommend that radiation protection concepts be emphasized to cardiologists, and that hospital managers be obligated to upgrade angiography equipment because the newer models have less scattered radiation.

Key Words:  cardiac catheterization , cataract , radiation exposure

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PII: S1726-4901(10)70041-1

doi:10.1016/S1726-4901(10)70041-1

Journal of the Chinese Medical Association
Volume 73, Issue 4 , Pages 199-204, April 2010

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