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There is a radiation burden for CT scans, but modern machines have cut that far below earlier ones. The answer to "... how often can you have a chest/lung CT scan safely done..." is in the words of my pulmonologist, "as often as medically necessary, balancing the probability of finding answers against the risk of exposure."
Many of us with active lung disease may end up with 3-4 scans per year in early stages, fewer as we become stable. When first diagnosed, I had 3 in a year, cut back to 2 per year until stable. My pulmo would like no more that one every three years now unless there is evidence of progression - either by exacerbations or on an x-ray.
If you want to learn about how diagnosis of COPD and Bronchiectasis and the differences between them, is done by the top experts in the field, I strongly recommend this (long) webinar recording from NTMir.org in recognition of World COPD day in 2023:
Sue
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"as often as medically necessary, balancing the probability of finding answers against the risk of exposure."
That is a great answer.
CT scans, like any radiation exposure, are not great for your body. However they do provide information about physical stuff inside your body. You don't want to have CT scans unless there is a real need to get that information.
A Radiologist can look at a CT scan of a "Normal" person and they find things that they describe using scary words. It is their job to find and describe everything. Nobody has the perfect lungs of a baby, probably not even a baby. I made the mistake of reading my radiologist reports a couple times. All that did was lead me to ask my oncologist about each finding and learn that many were not concerning. I was basically wasting our time together and I did not want to do that. They told me about the findings that were significant. Now I don't even bother to read the reports. My doctors read them and interpret for me and that works great.