Western studies recently reported that patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are exposed to diagnostic radiation at potentially harmful levels. There is little research, however, on exposure to diagnostic radiation in patients with IBD in Asian areas. The present study assessed cumulative radiation exposure dose in patients with IBD who were treated at a single-tertiary medical center in Korea and analyzed the factors that increased the exposure dose.

Retrospective investigation was performed of the medical records of the patients who were followed up for 1 year or more in a period from January 2003 through November 2011 at Kangbuk Samsung Hospital.

Included in the study were 202 patients with IBD: 80 (39.6%) had Crohn's disease (CD) and 122 (60.4%) had ulcerative colitis (UC). The mean follow-up period was 4.2±2.5 years for CD and 4.3±1.4 years for UC. The mean culmulative effective dose (CED) for CD and UC were 39.7 and 11.0 mSv respectively ( P <0.001). In CD, factors associated with increased CED were surgery, history of intravenous steroid treatment, and structuring or penetrating disease.

A substantial proportion of IBD patients, especially CD patients, were exposed to significantly harmful amounts of diagnostic radiation, mainly due to computed tomography examination. Efforts should be made to reduced diagnostic medical radiation, especially in patients at risk for increased radiation exposure.