Huntsville (Ala.) Hospital has become the latest facility to notify patients that they may have received excess radiation exposure during CT perfusion brain scans. The provider is contacting approximately 60 patients to inform them of the risk, according to a recently issued statement, and of signs such as hair loss and red skin that would indicate they received a high dose of radiation at the time of their scans.
The 806-bed hospital's statement gave few details about the cases and did not speculate about a cause of the excess exposure. Huntsville Hospital officials said they are reviewing the incidents and will use the Food and Drug Administration's recently announced recommendations for minimizing CT radiation exposure. Huntsville is now the fourth facility and the first outside of California to be identified in an ongoing FDA investigation into excess radiation exposure linked to CT perfusion scans.
To date, more than 300 patients have been notified of potential excess radiation exposure, based on today's announcement and earlier ones by the FDA. Agency officials said during a news briefing Monday that they are continuing to investigate reports of potential excess radiation exposure in other states as well. CT machines manufactured by General Electric Co. and Toshiba Corp. have so far been identified as the ones used for the procedures.
