This is a notice from CHANGE.ORG
Time for a Personalized Approach to Gadolinium Use
In an April 10, 2018 interview “Diagnostic Imaging” spoke with the pharmaceutical company, Bayer’s Sheela Agarwal, MD and Joanne Hoener, RT to discuss the use of gadolinium-based contrast agents. Dr. Agarwal stated that “Historically, contrast dose has been an afterthought. In general, contrast is a small part of a radiology exam. The injector, the contrast, everything is dwarfed by the scan, the scanner itself, the radiation, the sequences. It’s taken time to evolve in terms of its importance, and everything going on for the past few years on this topic has made it that much more relevant.”
Hoener believes that the name of the exact contrast agent and the dose should be documented in the patient’s record and should play a role in overall patient management. The patient’s history should be reviewed, specifically noting the patient’s previous contrast administration and “glean any information they can to be better informed about the contrast that might be given for that day’s procedure”. Special attention should be paid to patients with chronic illnesses and pediatric populations that may have multiple scans and accumulate multiple doses over time.
Agarwal and Hoener recommend that patients report any post contrast symptoms to their physicians so data can be collected and documented, which will help with patient management in the future. They are calling for the research community as a whole to conduct studies on the matter. Agarwal said “Documenting this information about gadolinium retention and having it available in the patient record will be very important to inform that research”.
Agarwal states that gadolinium, like all drugs, should have its risk-benefit profile considered each time it is being used. Radiologists should review the reason for the scan, if there is a need for contrast and if so, which type and dose should be used. He said that “Each patient needs to be evaluated as an individual. And, the reason they’re coming in for the exam needs to be evaluated as to the value that a contrast agent can provide. That applies over time for the follow-up exams and the amount of contrast they’re exposed to cumulatively over time. There are things that radiologists are well-versed in when it comes to radiation dose, but the same analysis could be applied to contrast dose, as well”.
To read the full interview: http://www.diagnosticimaging.com/contrast-agents/why-you-need-track-contrast-dose-exposure