Cumulative dose

{{no footnotes|date=August 2017}}

Cumulative dose is the total dose resulting from repeated exposures of ionizing radiation to an occupationally exposed worker to the same portion of the body, or to the whole body, over a period of time.

In medicine, the total amount of a drug or radiation given to a patient over time; for example, the total dose of radiation given in a series of radiation treatments or imaging exams. Recent studies have drawn attention to high cumulative doses (>100 mSv) to millions of patients undergoing recurrent CT scans during a 1- to 5-year period.{{cite journal|url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00330-019-06523-y|title=Patients undergoing recurrent CT scans: assessing the magnitude|year=2020 |doi=10.1007/s00330-019-06523-y |last1=Rehani |first1=Madan M. |last2=Yang |first2=Kai |last3=Melick |first3=Emily R. |last4=Heil |first4=John |last5=Šalát |first5=Dušan |last6=Sensakovic |first6=William F. |last7=Liu |first7=Bob |journal=European Radiology |volume=30 |issue=4 |pages=1828–1836 |pmid=31792585 |s2cid=208520824 |url-access=subscription }}{{cite journal|url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00330-019-06528-7|title=Multinational data on cumulative radiation exposure of patients from recurrent radiological procedures: call for action|year=2020 |doi=10.1007/s00330-019-06528-7 |last1=Brambilla |first1=Marco |last2=Vassileva |first2=Jenia |last3=Kuchcinska |first3=Agnieszka |last4=Rehani |first4=Madan M. |journal=European Radiology |volume=30 |issue=5 |pages=2493–2501 |pmid=31792583 |s2cid=208520544 |url-access=subscription }}{{cite journal|url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00330-019-06551-8|title=Patients undergoing recurrent CT exams: assessment of patients with non-malignant diseases, reasons for imaging and imaging appropriateness|year=2020 |doi=10.1007/s00330-019-06551-8 |last1=Rehani |first1=Madan M. |last2=Melick |first2=Emily R. |last3=Alvi |first3=Raza M. |last4=Doda Khera |first4=Ruhani |last5=Batool-Anwar |first5=Salma |last6=Neilan |first6=Tomas G. |last7=Bettmann |first7=Michael |journal=European Radiology |volume=30 |issue=4 |pages=1839–1846 |pmid=31792584 |s2cid=208520463 |url-access=subscription }} This has resulted in a debate on whether CT is really a low-dose imaging modality.{{cite journal|title=CT is still not a low-dose imaging modality|year=2020 |doi=10.1002/mp.14000 |last1=Rehani |first1=Madan M. |last2=Szczykutowicz |first2=Timothy P. |last3=Zaidi |first3=Habib |journal=Medical Physics |volume=47 |issue=2 |pages=293–296 |pmid=31883346 |s2cid=209499310 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2020MedPh..47..293R }}