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Imaging and Radiation to Be Discussed at Anaheim Meeting

by Lynn Shapiro, Writer | July 15, 2009
American Association of
Physicists in Medicine
(AAPM)
The latest post-9/11 standards for tracking radioactive materials, the long-term trends in radiation exposure to physicians and the public, and some of the latest ideas for minimizing medical radiation dosage to children, adults, and health professionals will be discussed at the upcoming meeting of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), which takes place from July 26-30, 2009 in Anaheim, CA.

Thousands of scientists and board-certified health professionals from the field of medical physics will gather there to present the latest technologies in medical imaging and radiation therapy and discuss the ethical and regulatory issues facing those fields today.

Included below are a few of the presentations related to radiation exposure and radioactive materials.

REPORT ON U.S. PUBLIC EXPOSURE
U.S. citizens are exposed to nearly six times more radiation today than they were in 1987, according to data summarized in the newly-released National Council of Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP). Mahadevappa Mahesh of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine will discuss where this radiation is coming from, with a focus on medical technologies like CT scans and nuclear medicine.
(8:30 a.m. on Monday, July 27 in room 213A). More information: http://www.aapm.org/meetings/09AM/PRAbs.asp?mid=42&aid=11979.

KEEPING TRACK OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
Launched in late 2008, the National Source Tracking System closely tracks an inventory of high-risk radioactive materials in the United States. Angela Randall of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will describe the deployment and operation of this security network and will provide an opportunity to receive feedback from the audience.
(1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 28 in room 211A). More information: http://www.aapm.org/meetings/09AM/PRAbs.asp?mid=42&aid=12050.

REDUCING RADIATION DOSES IN CHILDREN
The developing organs of children are more sensitive to radiation exposure than those of fully-grown adults, which makes minimizing dosage a major priority of pediatric medicine. Parinaz Massoumzadeh of the Washington University School of Medicine will discuss the results of a study in which 19 radiologists scrutinized 176 CT scans taken from 16 children (half of whom had abnormalities that should be visible in the scan).

This study showed that the radiologists could identify the abnormalities just as well on scans with doses of radiation that were 50 to 80 percent lower than those typically used.