(Press-News.org) ROSEMONT, Ill.--According to a new study in the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (JAAOS), imaging studies necessary to diagnose traumatic injuries sustained by pregnant women are safe when used properly.
During pregnancy, approximately 5 to 8 percent of women sustain traumatic injuries, including fractures and muscle tears. To help evaluate and manage these injuries, orthopaedic surgeons often recommend radiographs and other imaging studies. "While care should be taken to protect the fetus from exposure, most diagnostic studies are generally safe, and the radiation doses from these studies are well below thresholds considered risky," says lead study author and orthopaedic surgeon Jonas L. Matzon, MD.
Proper diagnosis and treatment of these injuries is important because traumatic injuries are the leading cause of non-pregnancy-related maternal death. Expectant mothers may be concerned about the impact of radiation exposure on the fetus and may perceive the risk of a diagnostic test as high. This new report shows that "the true risk is low, so these concerns should not prevent pregnant women from having indicated diagnostic imaging studies," says Dr. Matzon.
X-rays and other imaging devices emit two types of radiation: nonionizing radiation which does not carry enough energy to completely remove an electron from an atom or molecule, and ionizing radiation, which can remove one or more electrons from atoms and molecules. At high enough doses, ionizing radiation may cause birth defects or spontaneous abortions and increase the risk of cancer. However, fetal exposure to ionizing radiation depends on many factors, including the body part being imaged, the type of imaging selected, the amount and type of radiation emitted, the mother's bodily build, the distance between the fetus and the area being imaged, and the safety protocols followed.
For example, ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are not associated with known fetal effects and are considered safe for pregnant patients. In contrast, computed tomography (CT) of the pelvis results in higher doses of radiation to the fetus, and therefore, greater consideration must be taken.
The study also found the following:
X-ray exposure from a single diagnostic procedure does not result in harmful fetal effects.
The likelihood of a harmful effect is proportional to the radiation dose and the gestational age of the embryo or fetus at the time of exposure.
"If a patient requires multiple scans and repeated doses of radiation, a consultation with a qualified medical physicist should be considered to determine estimated fetal dose," says Dr. Matzon.
INFORMATION:
August 2015 Full JAAOS Table of Contents
Orthopaedic Advances: The Sunshine Act: Its Effects on the Practicing Orthopaedic Surgeon
Pediatric Posterior Sternoclavicular Joint Injuries
Ray Resections of the Fingers: Indications, Techniques and Outcomes
Considerations in the Radiologic Evaluation of the Pregnant Orthopaedic Patient
Clinical Differentiation of Upper Extremity Pain Etiologies
Psychological Aspects of Recovery Following Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction
Technical Considerations in the Treatment of Syndesmotic Injuries Associated with Ankle Fractures
Online Extra: Correspondence: External Beam Radiation for Orthopedic Pathology
Online Extra: Symposium: Extremity War Injuries IX: Reducing Disability Within the Military
Online Extra: Instructional Course Lecture: Principles of Antibiotic Prophylaxis in Total Joint Arthroplasty: Current Concepts
Online Extra: Guest Editorial: The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons' Resident Assembly
Orthopaedic surgeons restore mobility and reduce pain; they help people get back to work and to independent, productive lives. Visit ANationInMotion.org to read successful orthopaedic stories.
More information about the AAOS
Disclosures. From the Rothman Institute and the Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA (Dr. Matzon, Dr. Lutsky, and Dr. Beredjiklian), and the Garden State OB/GYN Associates, Voorhees, NJ (Dr. Ricci).
Dr. Lutsky or an immediate family member serves as a paid consultant to Synthes and serves as a board member, owner, officer, or committee member of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand. Dr. Beredjiklian or an immediate family member has stock or stock options held in Tornier and serves as a board member, owner, officer, or committee member of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand. Neither of the following authors nor any immediate family member has received anything of value from or has stock or stock options held in a commercial company or institution related directly or indirectly to the subject of this article: Dr. Matzon and Dr. Ricci.
Women experience more emotional pain following a breakup, but they also more fully recover, according to new research from Binghamton University.
Researchers from Binghamton University and University College London asked 5,705 participants in 96 countries to rate the emotional and physical pain of a breakup on a scale of one (none) to 10 (unbearable). They found that women tend to be more negatively affected by breakups, reporting higher levels of both physical and emotional pain. Women averaged 6.84 in terms of emotional anguish versus 6.58 in men. In terms of physical ...
PITTSBURGH-- In the era of launching Kickstarter campaigns to pay for just about anything, Carnegie Mellon University ethicists warn that the trend of patients funding their own clinical trials may do more harm than good.
CMU's Danielle Wenner and Alex John London and McGill University's Jonathan Kimmelman co-wrote a column in Cell Stem Cell outlining how patient-funded trials may seem like a beneficial new way to involve more patients in research and establish new funding opportunities, but instead they threaten scientific rigor, relevance, efficiency and fairness.
"Patient-funded ...
Easily manufactured, low cost, lightweight, flexible dielectric polymers that can operate at high temperatures may be the solution to energy storage and power conversion in electric vehicles and other high temperature applications, according to a team of Penn State engineers.
"Ceramics are usually the choice for energy storage dielectrics for high temperature applications, but they are heavy, weight is a consideration and they are often also brittle," said Qing Wang, professor of materials science and engineering, Penn State. "Polymers have a low working temperature and ...
Researchers at USC have developed a yeast model to study a gene mutation that disrupts the duplication of DNA, causing massive damage to a cell's chromosomes, while somehow allowing the cell to continue dividing.
The result is a mess: Zombie cells that by all rights shouldn't be able to survive, let alone divide, with their chromosomes shattered and strung out between tiny micronuclei. Sometimes they're connected to each other by ultrafine DNA bridges. (Imagine tearing apart a hot pizza - these DNA bridges are like strings of cheese still draping between the separated ...
WASHINGTON - The Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) announces the publication of a Health Education & Behavior theme section devoted to the latest research on domestic violence prevention and the effectiveness of community coalitions in 19 states to prevent and reduce intimate partner violence. The theme section "DELTA PREP" (Domestic Violence Prevention Enhancement and Leadership Through Alliances and Preparing and Raising Expectations for Prevention) presents findings from a multi-site project supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ...
Abusive men put female partners at greater sexual risk, study finds
Abusive and controlling men are more likely to put their female partners at sexual risk, and the level of that risk escalates along with the abusive behavior, a UW study found.
Published in the Journal of Sex Research in July, the study looked at patterns of risky sexual behavior among heterosexual men aged 18 to 25, including some who self-reported using abusive and/or controlling behaviors in their relationships and others who didn't.
The research found that men who were physically and sexually ...
A critical immune organ called the thymus shrinks rapidly with age, putting older individuals at greater risk for life-threatening infections. A study published August 6 in Cell Reports reveals that thymus atrophy may stem from a decline in its ability to protect against DNA damage from free radicals. The damage accelerates metabolic dysfunction in the organ, progressively reducing its production of pathogen-fighting T cells.
The findings suggest that common dietary antioxidants may slow thymus atrophy and could represent a promising treatment strategy for protecting ...
CINCINNATI - Researchers have developed a new technology that precisely marks where groups of regulatory proteins called transcription factors bind DNA in the nuclei of live cells.
Reporting their data Aug. 6 in the journal Molecular Cell, scientists at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center say the new technology - called SpDamID - could allow scientists to answer basic questions about tissue development and disease that existing technology cannot address.
"With further development this technology has the potential to give investigators glimpses into biological ...
AUSTIN, Texas -- Men's and women's ideas of the perfect mate differ significantly due to evolutionary pressures, according to a cross-cultural study on multiple mate preferences by psychologists at The University of Texas at Austin.
The study of 4,764 men and 5,389 women in 33 countries and 37 cultures showed that sex differences in mate preferences are much larger than previously appreciated and stable across cultures.
"Many want to believe that women and men are identical in their underlying psychology, but the genders differ strikingly in their evolved mate preferences ...
Understanding how and why we evolved such large brains is one of the most puzzling issues in the study of human evolution. It is widely accepted that brain size increase is partly linked to changes in diet over the last 3 million years, and increases in meat consumption and the development of cooking have received particular attention from the scientific community. In a new study published in The Quarterly Review of Biology, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/682587, Dr. Karen Hardy and her team bring together archaeological, anthropological, genetic, physiological and ...
