Estimated Fetal Radiation Dose From 18 F-FDG PET/CT During the Second and Third Trimesters of Pregnancy

Data published in the literature concerning the doses received by fetuses exposed to a 18 F-FDG PET are reassuring but were obtained from small and heterogeneous cohorts, and very few data are available concerning the fetal dose received after exposure to both PET and CT. The present study aimed to estimate the fetal dose received following a PET/CT exposure using methods that include anthropomorphic phantoms of pregnant women applied on a large cohort.

This retrospective multicenter study included 18 pregnant patients in the second and third trimesters. For PET exposure, the fetal volume and mean concentration of radioactivity in the fetus were measured by manually drawing regions of interest. Those data, combined with the time-integrated activities of the fetus and the mother's organs, were entered into the OLINDA/EXM software 2.0 to assess the fetal dose due to PET exposure. To estimate the fetal dose received due to CT exposure, 2 softwares were used: CT-Expo (based on geometric phantom models of nonpregnant patients) and VirtualDose (using pregnant patient phantoms).

The fetal dose exposure for PET/CT examination in the second trimester ranged from 5.7 to 15.8 mGy using CT-Expo (mean, 11.6 mGy) and from 5.1 to 11.6 mGy using VirtualDose (mean, 8.6 mGy). In the third trimester, it ranged from 7.9 to 16.6 mGy using CT-Expo (mean, 10.7 mGy) and from 6.1 to 10.7 mGy using VirtualDose (mean, 7.6 mGy).

The estimated fetal doses were in the same range of those previously published and are well below the threshold for deterministic effects. Pregnancy does not constitute an absolute contraindication for a clinically justified hybrid 18 F-FDG PET/CT.