Answer to Question #2730 Submitted to "Ask the Experts"

Q

I had a catheter ablation performed for a heart condition. At the time of the procedure I was unaware that I was pregnant. I believe that I was only five to seven days pregnant at the time of the procedure. I am now 9 1/2 weeks pregnant and very stressed that complications can occur due to the radiation exposure. What is your opinion on the radiation and what risk are involved.

A

The additional information you gave in your question—8.8 min fluoro and 3.73 seconds of cine—is helpful. There are a few things working in your favor that make this radiation exposure not of a concern for your baby. The first is that the exposure was to your chest area so the baby was not in the primary beam of radiation. There may be some scatter radiation that reaches the baby but it would be very small. Looking at two references (listed below), an estimate of the baby's dose would be between about 0.002 and 0.04 rad. This is well below any level shown to cause developmental effects (the scientific literature suggests this may occur somewhere between 5 and 10 rad). Secondly, your exposure times were very short. And third, during the first few days of pregnancy the effect of radiation exposure is all or none. Either a spontaneous abortion occurs (doses greater than 10 rad) or nothing occurs and the pregnancy continues normally. Since you are still pregnant, there were no effects from the radiation. Good luck with your pregnancy. Kelly Classic Certified Medical Health Physicist References: Wagner LK, Lester RG, Saldana LR. Exposure of the pregnant patient to diagnostic radiations (second edition). Medical Physics Publishing, 1997. Food and Drug Administration (Stern SH, Rosenstein M). Handbook of Selected Tissue Doses for Fluoroscopic and Cineangiographic Examination of the Coronary Arteries. HHS Publication FDA 95-8288, 1995.