As technology has evolved and access to medical imaging procedures has increased, it is hardly surprising that such procedures are now being offered to asymptomatic people for no other reason than that they can afford them. Whole body screening has enjoyed considerable growth in recent years. In this issue we investigate how this trend is not without its risks.
In a similar vein, Dr Noel Brewer examines the physical and physiological trauma, sometimes lasting for many years, that false positive test results can cause patients and the additional healthcare costs that may be incurred.
Nic Paton tackles the increasingly controversial issue of the growing use of computerised tomography, and W Michael Alberts and Laurie Fenton Ambrose offer their opposing views on the use of CT in lung cancer detection.