Robert A. Byrne1,2, MB, BCh, PhD; Colm G. Hanratty1, MD; Paddy Gilligan3, MSc
1. Cardiovascular Research Institute Dublin, Mater Private Hospital, Dublin, Ireland; 2. School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dublin, Ireland; 3. Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Mater Private Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
We recently recalled in these pages the discovery of ionising radiation by Roentgen, the fate of atomic bomb survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and how – 75 years later – we still use their outcome data to estimate harms from radiation exposure, and the impacts of both on modern interventional cardiology1. It is only through the leveraging of the benefits of ionising radiation technology that the success of interventional cardiology has been possible. The detrimental effects of radiation exposure for both patients and healthcare workers – both tissue effects and stochastic (probabilistic) effects – are the price that must be ...