Radiologists Say Patients Are Too Fat To X-Ray
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Americans are growing so large that patients are increasingly too big to fit into X-ray scanners.
Their fat is also too dense for X-rays or sound waves to penetrate, according to a report in next month’s issue of Radiology magazine.
Hospital equipment manufacturers are having to build new magnetic resonance imaging scanners with extra-large bore-holes to accommodate obese patients.
“In an obese person, because the ultrasound beam does not get to the organs or get to them adequately enough, we cannot get a picture,” one of the report’s authors, Dr. Raul Uppot, said.
Problems begin with patients weighing more than 238 pounds. In the past 15 years, the number of patients with X-ray or sound wave problems due to obesity has doubled.
X-rays and MRIs are used to find blood clots, tumors, hidden fractures, and diseased organs. “If you tell a patient, ‘I am sorry — we just can’t sit you on our scanner,’ that is devastating to hear,” Dr. Uppot said.
The American government says 64% of the population is overweight.
