CT scan and thyroid ANXIETY

[stupidthyroid]

Having a difficult time with extremely serious illness in my family, am wondering if I'm transferring severe worry about that to this.

Had a cardiac CT scan and forgot to mention I have thyroid issues already - should I have had something to cover my throat?

Am not able to google this as I think it will make it worse, hence asking.

Why would you need something to cover your throat? I have thyroid issues known and never covered throat in cT but know it’s done in mri.

Well, I don't know.

But was feeling fine and read an article about CT scans in general which casually then dropped in a comment about how they expose you to a very high degree of radiation and how rates of thyroid cancer were very high in areas after similar radiation levels from nuclear waste exposure, even if a long distance away.

Went to my hospital website and it said there is a "small risk of cancer" from the CT but they are generally very safe.

I hadn't thought CT scans were so risky. I'd thought they were roughly the same amount of radiation as a mammogram.

I'm new here please.

Its so boring in here

Does anyone know anything about this please?

No, there's mixed evidence on whether lead shielding is really that helpful placed on top of an area anyway as you get scatter radiation. In a CT scan the radiation isn't coming at you in a fairly straight line like an xray it is coming from all around the ring you are moving through so it wouldn't cover it all anyway. The thyroid shield for a cardiac scan could easily be low enough that it obscures relevant anatomy.

The reason Drs/Rads/Nurses wear thyroid shields in theatre/angio etc is because they are being exposed to radiation da

Day in day out so it accumulates over time.

MRI is a giant magnet and doesn't use ionising radiation so you wouldn't need lead shielding and you definitely wouldn't put a sheet of lead in the scanner.

My endocrinologist told me to always ask for a thyroid collar for Xrays etc...

When I trained as a nurse in the 90s we had to wear them in radiology.

Certainly can't hurt.