Managed Care - January 2008 - (Page 34) > AT LAST, RADIATION-FREE DIAGNOSIS AND MONITORING OF SCOLIOSIS AND THE END OF BREAST CANCER INDUCED BY OVEREXPOSURE TO SPINE X-RAYS Announcing An Invaluable Application Of The Unique Fonar Dynamic™ Upright ® MRI At last, radiologists and surgeons can perform diagnosis and treatment monitoring of scoliosis patients without exposing them to repeated doses of X-ray radiation. The Fonar Dynamic™ Upright® MRI allows imaging of the spine upright and fully weight-loaded – and sees, not only the curvature of the vertebrae, but the soft tissue, including the nerves and discs. National Cancer Institute Report Shows 70% higher risk of breast cancer1 The NCI reports, “Researchers have found that women with scoliosis, or abnormal curvature of the spine, who were exposed to multiple diagnostic X-rays during childhood and adolescence may be at increased risk of dying of breast cancer…. The 5,466 women in the study, who received an average of 24.7 X-rays, were found to have a 70% higher risk of breast cancer than women in the general population.” “These findings provide yet another indication that radiation exposure, especially in childhood, is associated with increased breast cancer risk later in life, and that the amount of risk is proportional to the radiation dose,” said Michele M. Doody, M. S. , from The National Cancer Institute’s Radiation Epidemiology Branch and the principal investigator of the study. The report goes on to say that “although radiation exposures to breast tissue are much lower today than during the time period covered by this study, they are not insignificant.” Scoliosis occurs in approximately 2 percent of girls (3 million American women).
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