Does brain CT scan have radiation?

Generally speaking, brain CT scans do have a certain amount of radiation, but this radiation is within a controllable range and the harm to the human body is very small. If a baby has a brain CT scan, it will basically not affect the child's growth and development. And if it is just a single brain CT scan, it will basically not affect human health. You don't need to be too nervous, just relax.

There has always been a claim that radioactive medical examinations such as CT scans are harmful to health, which makes many people who have heard of it but do not know the truth very resistant to such examinations.

In fact, radioactive examinations do produce radiation, but as a necessary medical measure, the radiation dose of the machine is fixed, and occasionally conducting one or two such examinations in accordance with the examination principles will not cause significant impact on health.

How much radiation does CT emit?

The unit of measurement for radiation dose is mSv. You can understand how much radiation CT emits through the following example. The dose for a 20-hour flight is 0.1mSv, the dose for a chest X-ray is about 0.2mSv, the dose for a CT scan is about 2mSv-10mSv, and the dose for a chest X-ray is about 1.1mSv.

How CT can cause harm to people

X-rays are high-energy particles that disrupt cell function and metabolism when they penetrate the human body. If the dosage is not large, it will only produce short-term effects, the human body can repair itself, and the harm will be relatively small.

If the X-ray dose is high, it will damage genes and produce various harmful biological effects. Moreover, as the radiation dose increases, the chances of damage not only to carcinogenesis, but also to hematopoiesis, reproduction, genetics, growth and development, and hormone regulation will also increase.

What is the probability of cancer caused by a CT scan?

Assuming that the human body is exposed to radiation, it takes the following process for a tumor to appear: first, the radiation causes DNA breaks in some cells. These damaged cells will undergo genetic repair, and most cells that fail the repair will end up with apoptosis. Gene mutations may occasionally occur, but the mutated cells will in most cases be eliminated by the immune system.

After being irradiated once, it is indeed not easy for normal cells to go through layers of low-probability events and become immortal cells. From animal experiments, it can be seen that unless exposed to long-term, high-dose radiation, cancer is generally unlikely to occur, and the probability of bone marrow suppression is even higher.

However, for patients with common pneumonia, it is not necessary to undergo repeated CT examinations in a short period of time. Chest X-rays and other methods can be used instead.

In short, CT examinations can be used safely when necessary. One or two examinations will not cause serious harm to the human body, but it should not be used indiscriminately or abused because it is thought to have little harm.