Exposure to radiation with regular X-Rays

Medical Q&A [Moderated]
1

Dear AB/JF

Our pediatrics (physical therapy, not medicine) lecturer told us about how some of her patients with scoliosis have stopped getting twice yearly X-Rays due to the exposure to radiation increasing breast cancer risk. As a PT student, I am unfamiliar with radiation from X-Rays and cancer risk, I do find it hard to imagine however, that modern X-Rays would have that much radiation, especially since there’s things like CT-scans, which would equal a few years of twice yearly normal x-rays in terms of radiation. However, these are just some thoughts I had and I don’t know anything about this stuff, so educate me if this is a legit concern.

Thanks,
SB

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The dose of radiation is measured in sieverts, which measures the health risk of radiation. In general, short-term doses > 100 millisieverts (mSv) start to get people’s attention for potential health effects, whereas ~ 20 mSv/yr is sometimes used as a safety cutoff for occupational settings.

The radiation dose for the two x-rays used most commonly in scoliosis monitoring (AP and lateral views) are ~ 0.6 mSv each. While the lecturer may just be reflecting her experience in practice with patient behavior, I think it is unlikely there is significant risk here.

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