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It's a tough decision to make even if you have the money - PET scans use a radioactive tracer injected in your blood that's like 5 years worth of radiation in o
by bottlepalm 3y ago
It's a tough decision to make even if you have the money - PET scans use a radioactive tracer injected in your blood that's like 5 years worth of radiation in one day. It can detect cancers, but yea that's an unsettling amount of radiation.
Then there's the risk of them actually finding something, which is very stressful, requires biopsies, potentially surgery, etc.. for something that could actually be benign.
My gf did it already with no issues luckily, but I haven't been able to rationalize doing it myself.
- JimtheCoder 3y agoAre they not using MRI primarily?
- bottlepalm 3y agoThey offer MRI combined with PET. They give you a high dose of iron for to see things better in the pancreas. PET scan uses like radioactive sugar to find hungry cancer, even tiny ones. MRI is used to find large scale structural problems.
- version_five 3y agoIt's an MRI, there's no radiation. And I understood these scans look for changes more than specific structures, so have fewer false positives than just a one-of https://archive.md/BDZX8 https://archive.md/BDZX8
- bottlepalm 3y agoIn terms of people getting preemptive scans, hospitals around the world offer PET/MRI/CT, etc.. basically an a la carte menu of diagnostics. To find cancer early you want PET.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- ttyprintk 3y agoThis article centers on an MRI company, who I’m sure tout the lack of exposure from MRI. If you’re going to get a PET scan, might as well do full-body, and make it PET/MRI. A PET/CT will reach 5-8 years equivalent of ambient background radiation.
- bottlepalm 3y agoI wonder if there's a difference between internal and external radiation. 8 years of radiation internally in the space of a day has got to be worse than 8 years of external radiation slowly.