Health professionals are being urged to use caution when recommending an x-ray on pregnant women or babies due to cancer risks.<\/p>\n
A new study published on the British Medical Journal<\/strong> website, finds there is the potential to increase the risk of children developing cancer if exposed to x-rays during this early part of their development.<\/p>\n Researchers found no increased risk from the use of ultrasound scans, but\u00a0a small increase in cancer risk for children who were x-rayed before the age of three months or during pregnancy.<\/p>\n There are also concerns that computed tomography (CT) scans and other imaging procedures are increasingly being used on young children.<\/p>\n As part of the Childhood Cancer Study<\/strong> (UKCCS), researchers looked at information on 2,690 children with cancer, and 4,858 healthy children.<\/p>\n All were born between 1976 and 1996 and data concerning their exposure to radiographic and ultrasound examinations was collated.<\/p>\n Of these children, 305 had radiographic related examinations during their mother’s pregnancy and 170 were given an x-ray during early infancy.<\/p>\n A 13,723 were subjected to an ultrasound during their mother’s pregnancy and 138 ultrasound scans were carried out during early infancy,<\/p>\n Researchers found there was a ‘slightly’ higher risk for all cancers and leukemia is exposed to x-rays during pregnancy.<\/p>\n An increased risk of lymphoma as well as a small risk for all cancers and leukemia was also found with young infants having x-rays.<\/p>\n The researchers say: \u201cOur results, which indicate possible risks of cancer from radiation at doses lower than those associated with CT scans, suggest a need for cautious use of diagnostic radiation imaging procedures to the abdomen\/pelvis of the mother during pregnancy and in children at very young ages.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Health professionals are being urged to use caution when recommending an x-ray on pregnant women or babies due to cancer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bristol-news"],"yoast_head":"\n