When appendicitis is suspected, doctors typically perform a combination of physical exams, blood work, and imaging tests such ...

A CT scan usually doesn’t cause side effects, and most people can go home soon after. However, because a contrast is often used for stomach scans, you may need to wait about an hour to be sure ...

But if a CT scan is ultimately deemed to be the best tool—and, to be clear, in certain circumstances it is—then I would not resist getting it out of fear for the small increased lifetime risk ...

Sometimes patients have a CT scan before they even see the healthcare provider. That's a way to sort of enhance that visit. I also think that patients really ask for scans a lot.

A new study suggests the cancer risk from radiation emitted by the CT machine during a scan could be higher than previously thought — up to 103,000 cases from the 93 million scans performed in 2023.

They can be life-saving but radiation from the scans also contributes to cancer risk. The authors of a new study estimate overuse of CT scans is increasing the U.S. cancer burden.

It’s also important to recognize that CT scans use ionizing radiation to create images, and ionizing radiation — especially if the scan uses a high dose of radiation or a patient gets repeated scans — ...