3.1.2. Legal and Ethical Considerations

DXA exposes athletes to low radiation doses (ranging between 0.1 and 75 μSy dependent upon manufacturer, model and scan mode used). Considering this in perspective, the effective dose of two of the most widely used commercially available DXA systems (Hologic Discovery A system and GE-Lunar iDXA), which are relatively similar in radiation exposure (4–5 μSy), is less than the average natural daily background radiation experienced (5–8 μSy per day) in the United Kingdom [67,75,77,78]. However, due to radiation exposure, there are still legal and ethical constraints surrounding the dose of radiation emitted during DXA scanning (for both athlete and operator), which despite being relatively minimal when compared to other radiographic devices, is a factor that requires consideration. For example, in the United Kingdom, scanning for research purposes requires either ethical approval at a national level (a local ethics committee is not sufficient) or a referral from a qualified medical practitioner. Moreover, whist radiation is low, there is currently considerable debate as to the maximum times per annum this technique can be utilised and it is therefore not suitable if teams wish to assess body composition regularly throughout the season, i.e., monthly. Furthermore, it would also be inappropriate to scan females who may be pregnant.
