Q: My wife is 36 years old and we have a 3-year-old child. Due to excessive gas and acidity problem, she underwent a barium swallow X-ray (3 films) on the 27th day from her last menstruation cycle. She was supposed to get her period the next day but after the 4th day, pregnancy test was found positive. Since she was exposed to the barium X-ray during the above time, should she continue with her pregnancy or should she terminate it? Will the child remain normal if she continues?

A:I need to know where the Barium swallow was done (on what machine) and whether the gastro-esophageal junction was visualised and assessed in a prone-trendelenburg position. The pregnancy is at risk for going into a spontaneous miscarriage, organ malformations and the child thereafter has a higher than usual risk of leukaemias after the age of 10.