Imaging with radiation is always done only when appropriate, because you always want to limit the amount of radiation that you get, because radiation is a additive effect, so the total amount of radiation that you get in a lifetime plays a role as far as secondary malignancies and other things.

In urology, we will do imaging to look at the kidneys, the ureters, which is a tube that goes from the kidney to the bladder, and the bladder. It is done for cancer, mainly kidney cancer, bladder cancer, and prostate cancer. It is also done with kidney stones, and when you have blood in the urine. We always tried to limit the radiation that we are having someone exposed to when we do a CAT scan. For instance, if someone just needs a plain CAT scan without contrast, that has about a fourth of the radiation exposure.

If someone needs a detail exam, then obviously we will do the contrast study. If someone is pregnant, we always try to avoid doing any type of radiation exposure. And we’ll do a ultrasound, which although not as good, will most of the time tell us what the problem is.

So anytime you are scheduled to have any type of imaging, not only urology, you should always, always ask your physician if number one it’s appropriate, and number two, if it’s really necessary to get the answer that you want.

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