The level of compliance with special pregnancy considerations in medical imaging procedures

Considering the high sensitivity of Fetus to radiation, and the necessity of following special instructions when imaging pregnant patients and the safety of the work condition for pregnant radiology technologists, the present study aimed to review the results of the previous studies in this regard. Articles were searched in PubMed, Science direct, web of science and Scopus databases using the keywords radiation AND pregnancy, awareness OR knowledge AND radiation AND pregnancy. The author reviewed the abstract and full text of the articles and the relevant studies were selected for systematic review. The results of the reviewed studies show the underestimation of the risks of radiation for the fetus, referring pregnant women to imaging departments with ionizing radiation and performing abdominopelvic radiography in the first trimester of pregnancy for some of them. In relation to the working conditions of radiology technologists, the review of previous studies indicated that cooperation in the field of changing the work condition is done only for a small percentage of them (less than ۵%). While the monitoring of their radiation levels was average and similar to other personnel. Efficient counseling was not provided to pregnant patients and most of the referring physician and radiology technologists were not aware of the maximum permissible dose to the fetus. Accordingly, most of the reviewed studies have indicated the low level of compliance with the principles of radiation protection for radiology technologists and pregnant patients referring to imaging departments using ionizing radiation.

Keywords:

Compliance , pregnancy , medical imaging.