Final Consensus Statements from Rounds 2 and 3
| Round | Consensus statement |
| 2 | Guidelines offering advice for pregnancy screening before DIAGNOSTIC nuclear medicine procedures would provide more consistent approach. |
| Procedure and any potential risks associated with it should be explained and female patients should be VERBALLY questioned regarding their pregnancy status AND required to provide their SIGNATURE to indicate that procedure and any radiation risks have been explained and to indicate their pregnancy status. | |
| Childbearing age should be defined as 12–55 y for purposes of questioning patients about their pregnancy status before diagnostic nuclear medicine procedures. | |
| Women up to 55 y old should be questioned about their pregnancy status using standard approach. | |
| Under normal circumstances, consultation with caregiver, medical records, or medical personnel should be initiated to determine possibility of pregnancy for women with cognitive impairment and to help decide if pregnancy test is required. | |
| Under normal circumstances, interpreter should be used to question women with language barrier about their pregnancy status. | |
| Standard questions should include LMP. | |
| Standard questions should include both LMP and hysterectomy. Revoked in round 3. | |
| Pregnancy testing should be used before diagnostic nuclear medicine procedures whenever there is uncertainty as to patient’s pregnancy status. | |
| Standard verbal questioning with patient signature is required to verify pregnancy status for all diagnostic nuclear medicine procedures regardless of potential level of radiation risk to fetus. | |
| 3 | If possible, when teenage girl is accompanied by parent or other adult, she should be taken to another room, without parent, to be weighed for radiopharmaceutical dose calculation and questioned then. |
| Teenage girls from age 12 to 17 y should be asked if they have begun menstruating and, if yes, then questioned regarding pregnancy status. | |
| For girls aged 12–17 y: | |
| 1. Ask if they have begun menstruating. If no, proceed with examination. | |
| 2. If yes, continue with standard questioning. | |
| Term “culturally and linguistically diverse” can be used to describe women who differ according to religion and spirituality, racial backgrounds, and ethnicity as well as language. | |
| Whenever possible, female staff member should question women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds about their pregnancy status. | |
| If available in a reasonable time, serum pregnancy testing should be used in preference to urine pregnancy testing. | |
| If urine pregnancy testing is used PRIOR to date of missed menses and result is NEGATIVE, postpone examination until menstruation begins. |