Impact of Obesity on Medical Imaging

OBESITY AND RADIOLOGY

Reference-Advance Imaging Magazine

"Americans are getting larger—much larger, which is no secret to radiologists or radiologic technologists. Very obese patients often exceed imaging table weight maximums and bore/gantry limitations, and frequently their body fat impedes rendering of quality diagnostic images. While patients must take responsibility for their own health, equipment vendors and the clinical community are equally invested in solving the weighty matter of obesity in medical imaging. Everything from plain X-ray to ultrasound, MRI and CT can be affected by obesity to the extent that the images can be very difficult to interpret."

All Radiologists have written sometime or the other in the reports of the patient-poor visualization due to obesity. This is common knowledge the size of the patient affects the quality of imaging study. Sometimes the issue is not poor visualization, it is inability to fit in to the machine, so vendors are now realising this fact and producing bigger machines. Common man understands that obesity leads to heart disease etc but is unaware that his/her diagnsotic studies may be hampered by his size. Approach to this problem has to be two prong-one on the part of the vendors to make bigger machines and other on the part of the people to realise the perils of obesity.