Steven M. Boker

Nuclear medicine is a subspecialty of radiology involving the administration of small amounts of radioactive materials for diagnostic scanning. Examples would be bone scans looking for cancer and other bone disease, cardiac studies to evaluate the heart's function and to look for areas not getting enough blood (which could lead to a heart attack), lung scans looking for blood clots to the lungs, HIDA scans, which evaluate the function of the gallbladder, and other exams.

Sorry, I'm not a Radiation Oncologist, a physician specializing in radiation therapy. I am a Diagnostic Radiologist; we interpret X-rays, CT scans, MRI, nuclear medicine, ultrasound, and other modalities to diagnose disease.

Your hand would be imaged and the radiation beam will be narrowed to reduce outside radiation. In addition, since you are out of your first trimester, any minimal exposure would be safe.
Inform the X-ray technologist that you are pregnant. They will take any necessary precautions. That's part of their training and job!

Did they not shield you during the X-ray? Did they give you an apron to wear? Were you actually in the room at the time of exposure? Even if you were, you would not have been within the primary X-ray beam and would have received only scatter radiation. The risk of any problem would be extremely small.

We do not allow anyone in the room during exposure without wearing a protective apron. That's pretty standard in the US. Not sure about outside the US.

In my 35 years experience, I have never seen an implant rupture from a mammogram. Mammography technologists are trained to deal with patients with implants and do special implant displaced views in addition to the routine images.

CT contrast is iodine based so it shows up in CT scans which use X-rays.

MRI contrast has to cause an effect that shows up on MRI scans, which do not use X-rays.

Therefore, MRI contrast is not iodine based.

Yes, typical low dose x-ray scanners at airports will only give you 1/500000 of the dose it would take to harm your baby. Also, many other scanners don't use x-rays but use radio waves or magnetic waves. These are also low power and have not been associated with any fetal abnormalities.

First of all, I am a diagnostic radiologist and as such, I do not do radiation treatment. That being said, the younger you are, the better chance of being able to conceive after chemotherapy. So, at 32 years old, I would say that she has an excellent chance.

Radiology equipment is very safe and independent of patient condition, other than obesity. Larger patients require greater exposure to be able to penetrate the body. All equipment is inspected regularly and there have been advances in the technology that have resulted in reduced radiation exposure to patients, particularly in CT scanning.

I am a radiologist, not a radiation Oncologist, but I can answer your question. The seeds are themselves radioactive and are implanted directly into the prostate gland. That way, the tumor in the gland receives the therapy and radiation exposure to the rest of the pelvis( which can lead to problems later) is reduced.

CT would be more accurate in localizing the mass to determine whether it is in the parotid or right next to it. Ultrasound could be less specific.

If it is in the parotid, the majority of parotid tumors are benign.

If it's outside of the parotid, it could be a lymph node.

Bottom line is the FNA biopsy you had. That will give the definitive answer.

Neck masses can be tricky to figure out where they originate from on CT or ultrasound. They are mainly used as tools to initially see if the mass is solid or a cyst, and also to look for other possible masses or other abnormalities that might help figure out what it could be and to decide if biopsy is required.

Hope this helps!

Dr. Boker