POTENTIAL OVERUSE OF CT IMAGING BY VARIOUS CLINICAL DEPARTMENTS OF A TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL

Computerized Tomography, commonly called as the CT scan is an ionizingnon-invasive, modality which uses combination of series of X ray images taken from the different angles to create cross-sectional images of the body. Even after the advent of advanced imaging techniques such as MRI, CT is still holds an edge over it because of its cost-effectiveness, availability and faster results. But all these factors are also seen to cause an adverse impact leading to overuse or unethical use of the CT regardless of the radiation exposure.In tertiary care teaching hospital, 200 patients attending out-patients and in-patients from all the clinical departments were taken into the study. They were categorized based on their age and the indication of CT imaging (underlying medical condition).The study showed a gradual rise in the CT investigation with increasing age upto the age of 70 years. It was observed that, highest CT imaging were done for the middle-aged group of 50-70 years and least being extremes of below 18 age group. The leading causes for which CT was most requested, were found to be for pre-surgical screening during COVID19 pandemic, followed by COVID19 infection severity detection, head trauma, suspected cases of stroke, renal stones and rhinosinusitis being the fifth leading causes respectively.The present research concludes that, CT investigation is an important benchmark in the field of diagnostic medicine, but careful scrutiny is required while advising these modalities to avoid the unnecessary radiation exposure. Hospital authorities must be responsible to prepare strict guidelines and frequent workshops should be conducted for health professionals to acquaint them with the updated guidelines, for recommending radiation involved imaging to maintain a cost-benefit balance, where the benefit is the diagnostic advantage and the cost being the radiation exposure.