18FDG PET in a pregnant patient

A 26-year-old pregnant female presented with cervical adenopathy which was shown on biopsy to be Hodgkin's disease. As she had some systemic symptoms, It was decided to further stage her disease, with the options being allowing the pregnancy to continue, or terminating the pregnancy and treating immediately. To keep the radiation dose as low as possible, the administered dose of l8FDG was reduced giving a total estimated dose to the fetus as 3.2 mGy and l37Cs used as the source for attenuation correction rather than CT (dose estimated as 0.15mGy instead of 1.5 mGy) Total dose to the fetus was estimated as 3.4mGy. ICRP indicates that termination of pregnancy is not justified for radiation doses less than 100mGy. The findings confirm that an indicated PET scan may be performed in pregnancy at acceptable radiation dose. Relatively straightforward modification of the standard scanning protocol will reduce the estimated fetal dose. Copyright (2006) The Australian and New Zealand Society of Nuclear Medicine