Roblin your reply brings up an interesting point and more questions in MRI vs. CT Scan
Let’s factor out
Anxiety and Claustrophobia
Metals and how they effect MRI
Length of time of Procedure/Ability to tolerate time
Cost
What can a CT Scan Provide in terms of Diagnostic Imaging that an MRI can not?
------------------ Resources Below------------------------
This is interesting but boringly technical
http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/...art/smart.html
Blood test to determine exposure
http://www.buffalo.edu/reporter/vol31/vol31n18/n8.html
This link is a PDF file that shows the amount of radiation from the most common tests (It's contained within the report Table 1 Page 2)
www.ccjm.org/PDFFILES/Lockwood6_06.pdf
Scary Fluoroscopy Injuries (I've had 4 of these now!!! Up to an hour long! - the procedures not the injuries - maybe those are coming down the road for me).
http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/rsnaii.html
FDA Table at the bottom of this links shows comparison of scans to how much you would receive naturally over a period of time.
"Estimates of the effective dose from a diagnostic CT procedure can vary by a factor of 10 or more depending on the type of CT procedure, patient size and the CT system and its operating technique."
The table says a Typical Lumbar CT is equivelent to what you would receive naturally in 158 days... but the worse case scenario would multiply that to 1500 days!!! Yikes!
http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/CT/risks.html
Yes it's the mighty Wikipedia the source to maybe be trusted
At the bottom of this links is information on how much exposure causes what kind of symptoms.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_poisoning
Here's a way to convert Exposure Units from one to another
http://online.unitconverterpro.com/c...-exposure.html
This link wasn't working but hopefully it will lend good information when it does. It's the American Nuclear Society Radiation Dose Chart.
http://www.ans.org/pi/resources/dosechart/
Apparently there is no one definitive chart as there are so many variables from patient size and build, to the equipment being used, to the skill of the technician and the length of the procedure.
What I can say definitively is there is on one keeping track of the procedures for you. Error on the side of caution. I do everything I can to avoid Xray exposure. But when they are going to stick a needle in my neck close to my spinal cord my choice is to let them do it blind and suffer potential failure of the procedure or paralysis or just let them do it and take the radiation risk.
No good answers once again.