Revisión de hallazgos y validación de nuevo protocolo de tomografía computarizada de baja dosis en pacientes con exposición laboral al amianto en el área sanitaria de Ferrol

Abstract

Asbestos is a material which was widely used in shipbuilding. Nowadays, however, it has been proveo that with high latency it produces lots of pathological conditions, specifically in thorax, and that is the main reason why regular clinical and image controls have been established. Even though CT has shown more sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of pathology after exposure to asbestos, the fact of applying a higher radiation dose restricts its routine usage. Low-dose testing protocols, with decreasing current intensity, have been carried out recently and they have stood out in the wake of the earlier programmes of lung cancer screening in great smokers who have shown higher survival rates. This application in being recommended also to patients exposed to asbestos. Given the big existing differences among tissue densities in the thoracic region, the strategy of dose reduction on this study was based on the descent of the tube potential, something hitherto recommended almost exclusively for vascular studies. The results showed a good correlation among findings with conventional CT, therefore the application of this protocol can be recommended for these patients and, due to the significant decrease in the radiation dose, its routine application instead of the conventional radiography should be valued.