This Past January I Had A Pelvic X Ray With

Posted on Tue, 18 Jun 2019

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Tue, 18 Jun 2019 Answered on

Last reviewed on

Question : This past January I had a pelvic x ray with two additional views of the hip ( AP and lateral views) and three views of my lumbar spine ( AP , lateral, and coned down view of the L5-S1 . Two months later I had a brain CT scan of 2 mSv. When I added up all the regular x Ray's they were more than the head scan. Should I be concerned about radiation induced cancer ? I'm VERY worried please answer asap

Answered by Dr. Dr. Antoneta Zotaj (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
You had much less than dangerous limits of exposure to radiation

Detailed Answer:
Hello and welcome to 'Ask a Doctor' service,

I read your query carefully and understand your concern. Medical radiation due to procedures is a great concern to many patients.

On the other hand, the radiation you have received is much less than the dangerous limits (less than 20 MSV).
If radiation is around 300 MSV patients or workers risk serious issues with radiation.

Thus, even though radiation does expose patients to increased risk of cancer, in your case, this does not seem very high risk as you already were exposed to much less radiation than the dangerous limits.

I hope this is helpful and answers your query.
I remain at your disposal in case any more medical assistance is needed.

Regards,
Dr. Antoneta Zotaj,
General and Family Physician

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Arnab Banerjee