(Press-News.org) For children under age 18 years, a single computed tomography (CT) scan is not associated with an increased risk of brain tumours, leukemia or lymphoma, but exposure to 4 or more scans before adulthood more than doubles the risk, according to new research https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.221303 in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).
Computed tomography in children has increased worldwide in recent decades, but there is conflicting evidence about the risks of cancer from these scans in this cohort. Computed tomography scans use low-dose radiation that can damage cells.
To understand if there is a link between CT scans and certain types of cancer and tumours, researchers looked at data on 7807 children in Taiwan diagnosed with intracranial tumours, leukemia or lymphoma between 2000 and 2013 matched with 78 057 controls within the Taiwanese national health system. They compared tumour rates for those who had had CT scans versus those who had not.
They found that for 1 CT scan, there was no increased risk of any of the cancers compared with no exposure. Children who received 2 to 3 CT scans had an increased risk of intracranial tumours; those who received 4 or more CT scans had a more than twofold risk of intracranial tumours, leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
"Our work reinforces the importance of radiation protection strategies, addressed by the International Atomic Energy Agency," writes Dr. Yu-Hsuan Joni Shao, College of Medical Science and Technology, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan, with coauthors. "Unnecessary CT scans should be avoided, and special attention should be paid to patients who require repeated CT scans."
Younger children appeared to be more at risk of developing cancer from repeated CT scans.
"Parents and pediatric patients should be well informed on risks and benefits before radiological procedures and encouraged to participate in decision-making around imaging."
Even though these tumours and cancers are rare, the authors urge careful use of this technology and suggest that health care providers consider using radiation-reducing techniques.
END
Single CT scan in kids low risk for cancers, but 4 or more CTs increases risk
2023-04-24
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
New programmable smart fabric responds to temperature and electricity
2023-04-24
A new smart material developed by researchers at the University of Waterloo is activated by both heat and electricity, making it the first ever to respond to two different stimuli.
The unique design paves the way for a wide variety of potential applications, including clothing that warms up while you walk from the car to the office in winter and vehicle bumpers that return to their original shape after a collision.
Inexpensively made with polymer nano-composite fibres from recycled plastic, the programmable fabric can change its colour and shape when stimuli are applied.
“As a wearable material alone, it has almost infinite potential ...
International study recommends replacing skull section after treatment for a brain bleed
2023-04-23
A major international trial has concluded that, where possible, surgeons should replace the removed section of the skull following surgery to treat a form of brain haemorrhage. This approach will save patients from having to undergo skull reconstruction further down the line.
The RESCUE-ASDH trial, funded by the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), involved 40 centres in 11 countries and involved 450 patients. The results of the trial are published today in the New England Journal of Medicine and are announced at the annual meeting of the American Association of Neurological ...
Achieving prevention and health, rather than more healthcare
2023-04-23
If more people have access to health insurance, we have to be sure the death rates of those with certain chronic conditions are decreasing.
This is one of the statements Gregory Peck, an acute care surgeon and associate professor at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, will be researching on behalf of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) at the National Institutes of Health.
Funded by NIH grants totaling more than $1 million through a recent two-year award from the New Jersey Alliance for Clinical and Translational Science (NJ ACTS), a Rutgers hub of the National Center for Advancing ...
Inflammation ‘brake’ gene may help reveal outcomes of kidney disease
2023-04-23
A discovery about gene variants of an inflammation ‘brake’ brings scientists a step closer to personalised treatment for patients at risk of kidney disease and kidney failure.
Researchers at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, University of New South Wales, Sydney and Westmead Hospital, found that common genetic variants of TNFAIP3, which increase inflammation in the body, can paradoxically protect the kidneys from damage in the short term.
“We wanted to investigate whether inherited differences in how people regulate inflammation could lead to better or worse kidney health outcomes,” says Professor Shane ...
Too much insulin can be as dangerous as too little
2023-04-22
Just over a century has passed since the discovery of insulin, a time period during which the therapeutic powers of the hormone have broadened and refined. Insulin is an essential treatment for type 1 diabetes and often for type 2 diabetes, as well. Roughly 8.4 million Americans use insulin, according to the American Diabetes Association.
One hundred years of research have greatly advanced medical and biochemical understanding of how insulin works and what happens when it is lacking, but the reverse, how potentially fatal insulin hyper-responsiveness is prevented, has remained a persistent mystery.
In a new study, published in the April 20, 2023 online edition ...
From sheets to stacks, new nanostructures promise leap for advanced electronics
2023-04-22
Tokyo, Japan – Scientists from Tokyo Metropolitan University have successfully engineered multi-layered nanostructures of transition metal dichalcogenides which meet in-plane to form junctions. They grew out layers of multi-layered structures of molybdenum disulfide from the edge of niobium doped molybdenum disulfide shards, creating a thick, bonded, planar heterostructure. They demonstrated that these may be used to make new tunnel field-effect transistors (TFET), components in integrated circuits with ultra-low power consumption.
Field-effect transistors ...
How alcohol consumption contributes to chronic pain
2023-04-21
LA JOLLA, CA—Chronic alcohol consumption may make people more sensitive to pain through two different molecular mechanisms—one driven by alcohol intake and one by alcohol withdrawal. That is one new conclusion by scientists at Scripps Research on the complex links between alcohol and pain.
The research, published in the British Journal of Pharmacology on April 12, 2023, also suggests potential new drug targets for treating alcohol-associated chronic pain and hypersensitivity.
“There is an urgent need to better ...
Want to make better materials? Read between the lines. Or the “grain boundaries,” as they’re known in materials science.
2023-04-21
The orientations of these infinitesimally small separations between individual “grains” of a polycrystalline material have big effects. In a material such as aluminum, these collections of grains (called microstructures) determine properties such as hardness.
New research is helping scientists better understand how microstructures change, or undergo “grain growth,” at high temperatures.
A team of materials scientists and applied mathematicians developed a mathematical model that more accurately describes such microstructures by integrating data that can be identified from highly magnified ...
New injectable cell therapy developed by WFIRM scientists could resolve osteoarthritis
2023-04-21
WINSTON-SALEM, NC, April 21, 2023 – Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) scientists have created a promising injectable cell therapy to treat osteoarthritis that both reduces inflammation and also regenerates articular cartilage.
Recently identified by the Food and Drug Administration as a public health crisis, osteoarthritis affects more than 520 million people worldwide who deal with pain and inflammation. Osteoarthritis is typically induced by mechanical or traumatic stress in the joint, leading to damaged cartilage that cannot be repaired naturally.
“Without better understanding of what drives the initiation and progression of osteoarthritis, effective treatment ...
New approach to developing efficient, high-precision 3D light shapers
2023-04-21
Modern-day technologies like optical computing, integrated photonics, and digital holography require light signals to be manipulated in three dimensions. To achieve this, it is necessary to be able to shape and guide the flow of light according to its desired application. Given that light flow within a medium is governed by the refractive index, specific tailoring of the refractive index is needed to realize control of the light path within the medium.
To this end, scientists have developed what are called “aperiodic photonic ...