Neuroimaging during pregnancy

Joshua P Klein1, Liangge Hsu

  • 1Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. jpklein@partners.org

Seminars in Neurology
|November 25, 2011
PubMed

Pregnancy can be associated with a wide variety of neurologic problems, resulting from alterations in physiology of the pregnant state. The pregnant patient presenting with neurologic symptoms poses both diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. The physician will often require some form of neuroimaging as part of their ongoing evaluation. This review discusses potential risks to the embryo and fetus that can be caused by undergoing computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), including those associated with the administration of intravenous contrast. Neurologic diseases or syndromes specifically associated with pregnancy are also discussed.

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