Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) Support Group
Atrial fibrillation (AF or afib) is an abnormal heart rhythm (cardiac arrhythmia) which involves the two small, upper heart chambers (the atria). Heart beats in a normal heart begin after electricity generated in the atria by the sinoatrial node spread through the heart and cause contraction of the heart muscle and pumping of blood.
Anyone concerned about the amount of radiation you get from one ablation? From what I recall, I got 1/4 gray from my ablation which equates to about 125 times what you get from 1 CT scan!!
I'm scared of getting anymore radiation now, since it's all cumulative.
I'm scared of getting anymore radiation now, since it's all cumulative.
Your radiation amount is even getting better :-) Here is why:
I am pretty sure your friend meant to say 2000 mrads for brain CT scan and not 200 mrad. In that case, you only got 25(rads) / 2(rads) = 12.5 CT scan equivalent during your ablation. Please check the chart in the following link for various CT scan radiation amounts:
http://www.ratical.org/radiation/CNR/XHP/CTexams.html#Nick01
According to the chart, you get 3-7 rads for a head scan . They even have the exposure for "fluoroscopy which is about 20-60 rads per minute, wow. How long was your ablation? Of course. may be they just used fluoroscopy to map the heart and then they switched to magnetics (like MRI) for imaging.
Of course, the chart that I used for my calculations was from the following link:
http://a-fib.com/treatments-for-atrial-fibrillation/catheter-ablation/ablation-procedure-and-radiation-exposure/
Also, 1 Gray = 100 rads or 1 cGray (Centi-Gray) = 1 rad
I never realized there are so many different units for radiation.
Okay, may be equivalent of 12 CT scans is much better than 120 CTs. But, still that is a lot of radiations that we get during an ablation. I just hope the hospitals switch to more advanced imaging equipment ASAP so the radiation received by patients can be reduced dramatically or totally eliminated.
Scott
I like your calculations a LOT better than mine!! It is still a lot of radiation, but MUCH better than my estimate!!
My ablation started at 6AM in the morning and went until about 2P. It was a long time.
I agree with you totally that they need to get the amt of radiation down significantly. I had to have a CT of the heart beforehand, which was yet again more radiation.
THanks a lot, Scott!! That does make me feel better!!
You are very welcome. It sounds like your ablation took a long time. I bet it was RF catheter only ablation, which takes much longer than if it is combined with Cryo. Well, the good thing is that it has worked and you are afib free now.
Thanks again for your post and bringing up the radiation issue. I think it should be another factor that should be considered when people go for ablation. For me, the radiation issue was an important obstacle before my ablation last year. However, when my EP told me that they use X-ray ONLY for the first 15-20 minutes and the rest is done with magnetics, I felt better about going through the ablation.
Have a great Memorial Day weekend.
Where did you get your ablation, may I ask?
If the darn radiation wasn't cumulative, it wouldn't be such an issue.
Happy Memorial Day weekend to you too!
Thank you for the post.
Sandy