Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Full Body Medical Scans

Aired July 15, 2002 - 12:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Health news now and a new high-tech trend that seems to be catching on: the full body scan. You've probably heard stories about how the exam found life-threatening conditions that would have otherwise gone undetected.

CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here to talk about the pros and cons of this.

Why are we hearing about it now?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's been around for years.

The reason why we are hearing about it now is that there have been a couple very highly publicized cases. For example, Skip Caray, who is an announcer for the Atlanta Braves, he recently -- he is actually this week going to have angioplasty because he recently had a scan. He wasn't having heart problems, but the scan found that one of his arteries was 96 percent blocked. So, he will be having angioplasty later this week.

So, why did he have the scan if he wasn't having problems? Well, he had the scan because his colleague, Don Sutton, the Hall of Fame pitcher, had given himself a scan for his 57th birthday. He went and got a scan done. He also was feeling fine. But it revealed that he had kidney cancer. And he recently had his kidney removed. Those are two highly publicized cases.

So, what exactly did this scan do? Well, what it does is, it sends radiation into your body from various directions. Here you see someone going through this circular machine. And what you are about to see here on the screen is -- that pink area, that's calcium buildup in an artery. They have circled it with that blue pen. And that's just one of the many things that a scan can find. They can also see if you have had bone loss. It can find cancers. It can find aneurysms.

And so, it seems, "Gee, why shouldn't I get one of these things?" They can find things that you wouldn't otherwise find because you don't have symptoms. Well, the American College of Radiology says don't get one of these. They say no study has shown that it is really worth it. It's expensive. It is between about $700 and $1,000.

And they say the really big problem is not just the radiation, because it is probably a pretty small amount of radiation. But the problem is that the scans can find things that turn out to be harmless. So, the radiologist says: "Oh, gee, by the way, you seem to have a spot on your lung. You need to get that checked." Well, that could make anyone extremely nervous. Then have you have got to have this whole battery of tests and you might find out that it is nothing. So, there are good stories and some not-so-good stories about the scan.

Now, if you decide, anyhow, that you want to take that risk and you want to have a scan, look for a radiologist who is board certified and who has lots of experience reading CAT scans, because not all radiologists do. PHILLIPS: You know everyone wants to know: Will insurance pay for this?

COHEN: Right. Right.

(LAUGHTER)

COHEN: And the answer is no. It probably won't pay for it. And the reason why is that most doctors would consider this -- or most insurance companies would consider this a fishing expedition. Most of the people who get this, they are really feeling OK. They just want to have themselves checked out from head to toe. And an insurance company doesn't pay for a fishing expedition.

However, if you have a certain reason to be worried about a certain aspect of your health -- if you having abdominal or gastrointestinal problems, for example -- your physician might say: "You know what? Let's do a scan just of your abdomen, or, if you're having heart problems, just of your heart, but not head to toe."

PHILLIPS: What will it not show?

COHEN: It will not show a whole lot of things. And I think people sometimes forget that. They think, "Gee, if you are taking a picture of every nook and cranny of my body, it must show everything." It's not going to show an infection. It's not going to show high blood pressure or high cholesterol. It's not going to show an abnormal heart rhythm, which can kill you.

So, there is some worry that people are feeling sort of -- after they get the scan and they are all checked out, they think, "Wow; I'm in great shape," when, in fact there can be plenty of things still wrong with them.

PHILLIPS: Now, I remember -- as a matter of fact, she works for us now -- back a number of years, she did a they on these body scans. And she was a smoker at the time. And she saw her lungs. She quit cold turkey.

COHEN: Wow, cold turkey, that's hard to do.

And I think that the scan could really encourage you to do that. And that apparently is one of the things that scan proponents say is that: "Geez, not only does it tell you about your health, but once you see what your lungs look like or what your arteries look like, it really inspires you to do this." So, that is a side effect, a good side effect of the scan.

PHILLIPS: All right, Elizabeth Cohen, thank you.

COHEN: Thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com