Just had two x-rays of my back done last week but they are blurred. Have been told the chiropractor wants four more done. Is it dangerous to do more?
The radiation dose from 4 x-rays is minor - verging on trivial - from the standpoint of health impact. If the x-ray machine is up-to-date then the radiation dose to your head and neck will probably be in the vicinity of 1 mGy (100 mrem) or less. The Nationwide Evaluation of X-ray Trends (NEXT) data I found does not explicitly address neck x-rays, but if we assume similar setting to a chest x-ray then the dose would be even lower. The expected health impact of this level of radiation exposure is so low that it’s not worth considering. In fact, according to the Health Physics Society, the results of epidemiological studies are so ambiguous that the HPS feels it’s scientifically inappropriate to calculate a numerical risk estimate for any radiation exposure of less than 100 mSv (10 rem).There is a risk of not having necessary diagnostic information. If you’re having problems with your neck, that risk is far greater than the risk from having some x-rays.
If my cat's bloodwork and x-rays come back fine, but she's just not acting right. So now what do I do?
Nearly impossible to tell but here are some possibilities.Cats can be very affected by environmental changes. Just a few examples:Their favorite seat by the window has been blocked.Their view out the window got blocked.They used to have a bird bath or a bird house in view and it was moved.The furniture moved in the house.You changed their food.You changed the litter you use.etcThink about what changed between the time that they were happy and now and try to change it back to see if that will help. It can literally take a cat months to get back to normal if you move the furniture and they don’t like it.Cats can be pretty freaking weird sometimes.
If I have back and neck pain all the time but take x rays of my back and neck when I don't have pain will the X-ray still show the problem?
First thing to know would be what kind of back & Neck pain do you have? If its chronic or Acute? As per your question I consider its chronic. Should you go for an X-ray at any time in case of chronic pain, you'll have the same report. To understand this is important by the fact that most of the chronic back & neck pain arise due to deformity or ill-alignment or a slight displacement of the discs in the spinal cords. These takes place over the period of time based on your posture. This can be overruled if allowed.So, don't wait for pain to occur , go ahead get your checks done & visit some orthopedic & then physiotherapist based on the recommendation.
Ever since I have had an x-ray of my back, I have been constipated. Can you explain this?
NO!!!!!I CAN GUARANTEE that having an “Routine” X-Ray of your back has ABSOLUTELY NO INFLUENCE on your Large and Small Bowel Motility.Perhaps you should consider adapting your Diet PLUS having a discussion with your Physician to see IF any Medications you might be taking have Constipation as a side effect.RegardsFrank
Does a chest X-ray view the front as well as the back of the body?
Sort of, yes. From the nature of this answer it's clear that this is not an advanced medical or scientific question so I am going to try and simplify the answer. An x-ray goes all the way through your body. When you take a photograph, the light bounces off the subject and back into the camera. So a camera is relatively easy to understand because it works sort of the same way our eyes do.When you take an x-ray, however, the x-rays go all the way through your body. The x-rays do not bounce back. (well, a few do if you want to get picky but that's not important for this question.) Thicker or harder body parts like bones will absorb the x-rays and the x-rays that do not get absorbed expose the film. This creates a 2 dimensional picture of all the stuff inside your body front to back.
How long does it usually take to get x-ray results back?
It takes five minutes to develop and one minute to look at. The rest of the delay is all people wasting time. The film comes out of the plate, goes into the developer bath and then into the fixer wash and then is rinsed and at that point it can be viewed and it does not take long to figure out what is wrong but in you case the x ray will probably be inconclusive and require an MRI because they are looking for a tear and those are hard to see on a traditional x ray. Hope you are feeling better. Keep icing the knee from time to time.
What are various ways to take a chest x-ray?
The chest is most commonly done in two views as it gives us an idea of what's happening in 3 dimensions. Keep in mind, an X-ray is essentially a "shadow-gram", meaning an image that shows anything that got in between the machine and the plate. As such, we can't tell if something we see is up front towards your chest or against your back. Thus, we add the side view. Similarly, a side view that shows something doesn't say whether it's located on the right or left, thus, the back to front view. We call it Posterior to Anterior (PA) and Lateral view and they are usually done together. Most patients face the X-ray plate with their back to the X-ray machine. That's called a PA view. AP views are necessary if the patient is laying in bed and can't stand. The plate is put under their mattress and the X-ray beam is above them. If you imagine the X-ray machine is like a flashlight, and you hold your fingers up in front of it, the shadows on the wall behind you will be bigger the closer you get to the light. The AP view brings the heart just a bit closer to the X-ray machine making it appear a bit larger on the plate behind the patient. The PA view is preferred if at all possible. In situations where I'm investigating whether a nerve may be pinched in the back, I'll order oblique views. This is shot at a diagonal, showing me the size of the windows the nerves pass through and give me clues that the patient's arthritis could be causing a crushed nerve.The radiologist is also more apt to find what we're looking for if we clue them in on why we're asking for the X-ray and where our suspected problem is. My X-ray prescription, therefore, contains at least 2 views (PA and Lat), with information on what it is I'm suspecting and where I wan't him to pay special attention.
Do tumors show up on X-rays? Why or why not?
When you get a regular photograph, what you see is an image of how the light rays bounced off the subject and back to the lens of the camera, where it could enter to make an image on the digital sensor (or film, if you’re old school).An x-ray works differently. X-rays go through most materials, but they do so with differing degrees depending on the material. The rays then strike the film or digital sensor and make the x-ray image. What we are looking at is actually a negative image, so the things that the x-rays don’t go through well look white, and the things that they penetrate well look black.X-rays have 5 basic levels at which they can penetrate materials. In increasing order they are:Air or other gasFatWaterBoneMetalAn x-ray is interpreted by looking at what is light and what is dark, and seeing of those patterns look like what we expect them to look like. This is a normal looking chest X-ray.The brightest (whitest) structures are bones. The next brightest are the things with water in them. This includes most of your soft tissues. The oval shaped thing in the middle is the heart, and the strands coming off the middle are blood vessels. The lungs are mostly air, so they look black. All is well with this film.Not so with this one:I think you can easily notice the white area on the left side of the image (which is the patient’s right side). That’s an area of soft tissue/water where there isn’t supposed to be one.X-rays are better at finding tumors in some places of the body than others. But when we see them, it is because of findings like this, where tissue shows up in ways it isn’t supposed to.
New dentist not giving me old x-rays?
my old dentist recently sold his practice, including patient records. i want my x-rays from the new dentist so that i can take them another dentist i go to now, but she has been very delinquent in returning calls and getting back to me. since the x-rays are technically mine, what action can i take -- e.g. file a complaint with the ADA. i live in california.