India’s Radiology body called AIIMS director Dr. Randeep Guleria’s CT scan statement “unscientific and irresponsible”. Dr Randeep Guleria, Director AIIMS, said that younger people who are being exposed to CT scans are at the risk of cancer, as they start aging. To this the radiology department denied the truth in the statement, calling it ‘unscientific’ and the director’s behaviour being irresponsible.

The Indian Radiological and Imaging Association, has slammed AIIMS Director Dr. Randeep Guleria’s claim that a CT scan is correspondent to 300-400 x-rays and, it should be avoided for minor Covid-19 cases. The IRIA stated these claims as “misleading”, saying that the body is “shocked and disappointed” by the director’s comments.

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“One CT scan is equivalent to 300-400 chest x-rays. According to data, repeated CT scans in younger age groups increase the risk of cancer in later life. Exposing yourself to radiation, again and again, may cause damage. So, there is no point in doing a CT scan in mild COVID-19 if the oxygen saturation is normal.”

This was the director’s statement in a press briefing which held on Tuesday.

To this IRIA said-

“This is a very retrograde and was the situation 30-40 years ago. The modern CT Scanners use ultra-low dose CT which has radiation comparable to only 5-10 x-rays, Radiologists all over the world follow the ALARA principle (as low as reasonably achievable) and give the minimal radiation possible during the scan.”

This statement was enclosed by the signature of Prof. C. Amarnath, president of IRIA.

The IRIA made a statement that CT scans are most useful in cases where patients show COVID-19 symptoms, but test negative on the RT-PCR test, considering various factors such as mutant virus or low viral load.

They added that the Chest CT scan helps diagnose such patients early and can help them prevent from being the carriers of the virus and infecting medical professional and other people surrounding them. They also compared how quick the Chest CT scans to the RT-PCR.

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The IRIA body concluded this discussion by saying that-

“The statement that CT Chest can cause Lung Cancer is indeed tensing. The radiation dose from a single CT Chest is almost equivalent to the background radiation received by any person over a year, such type of unscientific and irresponsible statements from such senior health authorities creates confusion among the public and hampers COVID 19 treatment”.