Final answer:
Indiscriminate use of high-level fluoroscopy can lead to acute skin erythema, lower signal-to-noise ratio in images radiation damage to tissues, and patient radiation doses that could exceed safe levels.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question concerns the risks associated with the indiscriminate use of high-level fluoroscopy, a medical imaging technique that uses X-rays to produce real-time moving images of the inside of the body.
Excessive use of fluoroscopy can lead to various health hazards such as:
- Acute skin erythema, which is redness or rash on the skin due to inflammation and can be a result of radiation exposure from fluoroscopy.
- Lower signal to noise ratio, indicating poor quality images which may not accurately represent the internal state of the body due to overexposure to radiation, thereby reducing the effectiveness of the diagnostic technique.
- Radiation damage to underlying tissues, as the tissues absorb the high levels of X-rays, leading to cellular damage that could escalate to more serious health conditions, including cancer.
- Patients could receive doses exceeding several hundred rads, which are significantly higher than what is deemed safe, and could result in severe radiation poisoning or long-term health issues.
The primary purpose of the cumulative manual-reset timer is to alert healthcare professionals to the amount of time a patient has been exposed to the radiation allowing them to manage and minimize overall exposure.