Being Obese Increases Ones Risk Of A wrong Diagnosis During Medical Imaging

In addition to being at-risk for various health conditions, obese people may also be cutting their chance of being accurately diagnosed during medical imaging.

According to a recent study researchers say obesity can limit the ability and accuracy of imaging equipment scans, such as computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

The number of problems with imaging overweight people nearly doubled from 0.10 percent to 0.19 percent in the past decade, which correlates with the increase in obesity statistics which have nearly doubled from 9 percent to 16 percent.

Researchers attribute this difficultly to the fact that ultrasound waves must penetrate through body tissue to produce an accurate image reading, and this becomes more difficult with heavier people. Thus researchers say manufacturers need to think about design changes and technological advancements to obtain quality imaging in larger patients.