Shots - Health News Bill Of The Month: A Tale Of 2 CT Scanners - One Richer, One Poorerīut Dr. The authors proposed that the contrast may have been responsible, because they could find no other clear cause during an autopsy. The patient quickly developed renal failure and died. An early form of contrast had been given to a patient for a diagnostic test. The first report of kidney damage after intravenous contrast, which became known as contrast-induced nephropathy, or CIN, appeared in a Scandinavian medical journal in 1954. In recent years, though, new research has led some physicians to question whether this effect has been overstated. The downside is that these patients may not receive the diagnostic information that would be most useful for them. As a result, contrast is often withheld from patients deemed by their doctors to be at risk for kidney problems. Others may experience nausea or headache.īut there is one widely feared adverse effect of contrast - kidney damage. Some patients may develop serious allergic reactions or cardiovascular complications, but these are rare. Shots - Health News Dangerous Infection Tied To Hospitals Now Becoming Common Outside Themīecause these drugs are used in some people who might not turn out to have anything wrong with them, and in others who may be seriously ill, contrast agents need to be quite safe.Īnd by and large they are. But they might be crucial in helping your doctor make the right diagnosis. They don't make you feel better or treat what's ailing you. One thing about contrast agents that makes them different from typical drugs is that they have no direct therapeutic effect.
This effect causes parts of an image to light up, which significantly enhances doctors' ability to detect things like tumors, certain kinds of infections and blood clots. Most contrast agents I use contain iodine, which can block X-rays. In the emergency room, where I work, contrast is most commonly given intravenously during a CT scan.Ībout 80 million CT scans are performed annually in the U.S., and the majority are done with contrast. Physicians call this drug "contrast," shorthand for contrast agent.Ĭontrast agents are chemical compounds that doctors use to improve the quality of an imaging test. One of the most widely used drugs in the world isn't really a drug, at least not in the usual sense. Contrast agent, a drug that enhances CT scans, is sometimes skipped because of concerns about side effects.
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