Posts Tagged ‘Colonoscopy’
What is a Virtual Colonoscopy?
There’s no way around it, a colonoscopy is unpleasant but a necessary part of maintaining your health. It’s an endoscopic exam of your colon and the distal part (the end) of the intestines using a CCD or fiber optic camera passed through the anus. It’s not fun, for obvious reasons, which is why the popularity of “virtual colonoscopies” have increased in recent years.
Rather than directly visually inspecting the colon and intestines, a virtual colonoscopy is a CT scan (or CAT scan) of the inspection areas. It’s non invasive, requires no sedation, and uses x-rays to create a detailed picture. The non-invasive nature makes it very appealing but the downside is that you are subjected to radiation, the x-rays, so repeated exposure can increase your risk of cancer.
Subscribe to the comments for this postExecutive Physicals: CT Scans of Colon and Coronary Arteries
I learned today that two tests given to the President for his annual physical aren’t included in most other annual physicals – CT scans of both his colon and coronary arteries. A CT scan, also known as a CAT scan, stands for Computed Tomography scan and is a noninvasive scan using low radiation x-rays to product images inside the body. They’re increasingly being used in “executive physicals,” which is a fancy way of saying “extensive” because they include a large number of scans and blood tests.
Doctors are mixed on the issue because while they certainly could help, they’re mostly expensive (remember, doctors are in business too). The dispute isn’t on whether it’s helpful but whether it’s necessary given the cost, so no one is saying getting a CT is bad for you. The problem is that getting regular scans of your coronary arteries doesn’t prevent heart attacks and getting scans of your colon, a virtual colonoscopy, isn’t any better than a regular one (minus the radiation).
In this CNN story, they asked the Cooper Clinic, SCripps Health in San Diego, and the Cleveland Clinic for their prices on “executive physicals” and they ranged from $2,000 to $3,000!
