Obesity Interferes with Medical Tests
According to research appearing in the August, 2006 issue of the journal, Radiology, more Americans are too fat to have x-rays, CAT scans, MRIs or diagnostic ultrasounds than in the past. Just under 2/3 of the American population is classified as either overweight or obese.
The researchers went through old radiology reports to look for language that stated the patient was too obese for proper imaging to be done. They found that 0.15% of the reports stated that the image quality was limited due to patient obesity. While this number seems small, it has doubled from 15 years ago.