Pregnant Patients scanned with DXA

The best way to avoid scanning a patient that is pregnant is by asking any women of child-bearing years (menarche to menopause) if there is any possibility that they might be pregnant. The other approach is to give pregnancy tests to patients before they are scanned. The later is often done in pediatric studies. If a patient thinks they may be pregnant, then postpone the exam until they are sure they are not pregnant.

However, even with these precautions, the accidental scanning of a pregnant patient does sometimes happen. Here is an example"

Patient X took a pregnancy test on the same day as her appointment for a DXA exam as part of a study. The pregnancy test was negative and the patient received a whole body DXA that day. Two weeks later, the patient found out that she was indeed pregnant and informed her study doctor to ask if there was any concern.

The DXA dose from a whole body scan is extremely low. The dose for a hip, spine, or whole body DXA scan is less than 8 µSv, the approximate daily dose from naturally occurring radiation sources (cosmic, radon, isotopes in soil and in our bodies, etc.) at sea level. The possible harm that could come to a fetus scanned by DXA is difficult to ascertain but very very low, and thus may not be knowable but similar to the risk associated with living at sea level for one day. The following papers discuss fetal scanning by DXA.

Blake GM, Naeem M, Boutros M 2006 Comparison of effective dose to children and adults from dual X-ray absorptiometry examinations. Bone 38(6):935-42.

Damilakis J, Perisinakis K, Vrahoriti H, Kontakis G, Varveris H, Gourtsoyiannis N 2002 Embryo/fetus radiation dose and risk from dual X-ray absorptiometry examinations. Osteoporos Int 13(9):716-22.

Lloyd T, Eggli DF, Miller KL, Eggli KD, Dodson WC 1998 Radiation dose from DXA scanning to reproductive tissues of females. J Clin Densitom 1(4):379-83.