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Updated: Apr 26, 2026
Intestinal Epithelial Regeneration in Response to Ionizing Irradiation
Published on: July 27, 2022
Radiation exposure from abdominal imaging studies in patients with intestinal Behçet disease
Yoon Suk Jung1, Dong Il Park2, Chang Mo Moon2
1Department of Internal Medicine and Institute of Gastroenterology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea ; Department of Internal Medicine, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Background/Aims:
Recently, several studies have revealed that diagnostic imaging can result in exposure to harmful levels of ionizing radiation in inflammatory bowel disease patients. However, the extent of radiation exposure in intestinal Behcet disease (BD) patients has not been documented. The aim of this study was to estimate the radiation exposure from abdominal imaging studies in intestinal BD patients.
Methods:
Patients with a diagnosis of intestinal BD established between January 1990 and March 2012 were investigated at a single tertiary academic medical center. The cumulative effective dose (CED) was calculated retrospectively from standard tables and by counting the number of abdominal imaging studies performed. High exposure was defined as CED >50 mSv.
Results:
In total, 270 patients were included in the study. The mean CED was 41.3 mSv, and 28.1% of patients were exposed to high levels of radiation. Computed tomography (CT) accounted for 81.7% of the total effective dose. In multivariate analyses, predictors of high radiation exposure were azathioprine/6-mercaptopurine use, surgery, and hospitalization.
Conclusions:
Approximately a quarter of intestinal BD patients were exposed to harmful levels of diagnostic radiation, mainly from CT examination. Clinicians should reduce the number of unnecessary CT examinations and consider low-dose CT profiles or alternative modalities such as magnetic resonance enterography.
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