title: Health effects of medical radiation on cardiologists who perform cardiac catheterization.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We investigated the health effects of low-dose radiation on cardiologists exposed to scattered radiation while performing cardiac catheterization (CC) in a hospital setting from 2003 to 2006.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed a 4-year retrospective study on 2, 292 medical doctors, using claims data from all contracted hospitals of the Bureau of National Health Insurance, Taiwan. We gathered statistical data regarding radiation-related diseases using the International Classification of Diseases, 9(th) Revision, Clinical Modification record numbers of each doctor.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 2,292 doctors evaluated, 1,721 were aged 35-50 years and the remaining 571 were aged 51-65 years. There were 892 cardiologists who performed CC (experimental group), and the majority of these (733/892, 82.17%) were aged 35-50 years. There were 1,400 medical doctors who performed no CC from 2003 to 2006 (control group). A total of 988 of these belonged to the 35-50 years age group and 412 to the 51-65 years group. In the 35-50 years group, the controls had significantly more medical visits for hematological and thyroid cancer (p <0.05), skin disease (p <0.001), and acute upper respiratory tract infection (p <0.001) compared with the experimental group. In contrast, cardiologists who performed catheterization had more cataracts compared with the control group, but this difference was not significant.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Doctors who did not perform CC had more visits for radiation-related diseases than those who performed catheterization. In the experimental group, cardiologists aged 35-50 years who were exposed to radiation during CC had more visits for cataracts than the control group. We recommend that radiation protection concepts be emphasized to cardiologists, and that hospital managers be obligated to upgrade angiography equipment because the newer models have less scattered radiation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, National Yang-Ming University Hospital, Taipei 112, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Mei-Kang
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: Ching-Wen
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Chien
authors.forename: San-Kan
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Nai-Wei
authors.initials: NW
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: Shih-Chieh
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Shu-Ju
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Gau-Jun
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Tang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D006328:Cardiac Catheterization; D002309:Cardiology; D002386:Cataract / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009381:Neoplasms, Radiation-Induced / Q000453:epidemiology; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D011835:Radiation Protection; D012189:Retrospective Studies