This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Radionuclide Imaging  • Alert me on articles by topic

Joan Stephenson, PhD

JAMA. 2005;294:787.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Patients who undergo a scan that involves radioisotopes should be cautioned that they could trigger radiation security alarms in airports for up to a month after the procedure (Iqbal et al. Lancet. 2005;366:342).

Physicians from Royal Brompton Hospital in London described a case in which a 55-year-old commercial pilot was detained by airport security officers after setting off radiation detection alarms. The patient had undergone a diagnostic thallium scan 2 days earlier.

"With the increased use of myocardial scintigraphy as a noninvasive way to screen for coronary artery disease, airport alarms may be more frequently triggered," the authors noted. To reduce the impact of such false alarms, it should be standard practice after diagnostic or therapeutic procedures involving radioisotopes to provide the patient with an information card stating the date and place of the procedure, the radioisotope used and its half-life, potential duration of radioactive emissions . . . [Full Text of this Article]