Should I be worried now aboutgadolinium side effects? I have my MRI on Monday..

[samanthaelizabeth]

Should I be worried now abou tgadolinium side effects? I have my MRI on Monday.. Recently I have been hearing bad things about it..

[KoKo]

Should I be worried now abou tgadolinium side effects? I have my MRI on Monday.. Recently I have been hearing bad things about it..

samanthaelizabeth

I recently read the article about gadolinium use on the National MS Society website.

It looks like the manufacturers are now going to do studies on the effects of contrast agents on humans and animals.

The article gives some guidelines for now:

In 2017, The Consortium of MS Centers convened a group of experts, and included representatives from the National MS Society, to review and revise their MRI Guidelines. The recommendation from the Consortium is for judicious use of gadolinium with the understanding that it remains important for diagnosis and ongoing monitoring of MS in certain situations, however, for routine ongoing monitoring gadolinium may not be needed.

The National MS Society recommends that people with MS and care partners should talk to their healthcare provider if they have questions about the use of gadolinium with MRIs.

https://www.nationalmssociety.org/Ab...-to-a-Commonly

Take Care

[pennstater]

Since it is possible you are in a relapse based on your other posts, it seems like this is a time the contrast is warranted. The contrast will let them see if any active lesions, potentially impacting your treatment.

[ru4cats]

At the December RRMS Center conference, the doctors said they will only use contrast if they are concerned about new symptoms or aggressive MS. i plan on refusing glad at my next MRI.

[Jules A]

There are risks vs benefits of everything however so far I haven't seen anything from the FDA that indicates I won't be receiving it with my next MRI. There have been incidents of residual gadolinium this although not ideal hasn't been, to the best of my knowledge, documented as causing detrimental effects. I will continue to watch and follow the guidance of my MS Specialist.

From the ACR committee: "Recently, residual gadolinium has been found within the brain tissue of patients who received multiple doses of GBCAs over their lifetimes. For reasons that remain unclear, gadolinium deposition appears to occur preferentially in certain specific areas of the brain, even in the absence of clinically evident disease and in the setting of an intact blood brain barrier. Such deposition is not expected, and led the FDA to publish a Safety Alert in July of 2015 indicating that they were actively investigating the risk and clinical significance of these gadolinium deposits. To date, no adverse health effects have been uncovered, but the radiology community has initiated a rigorous investigation.

Gadolinium deposition in the brain may be dose dependent and can occur in patients with no clinical evidence of kidney or liver disease. Fortunately, there have been no reports to date to suggest these deposits are associated with histologic changes that would suggest neurotoxicity, even among GBCAs with the highest rates of deposition. Although there are no known adverse clinical consequences associated with gadolinium deposition in the brain, additional research is warranted to elucidate the mechanisms of deposition, the chelation state of these deposits, the relationship to GBCA stability and binding affinity, and theoretical toxic potential, which may be different for different GBCAs.

Until we fully understand the mechanisms involved and their clinical consequences, the safety and tissue deposition potential of all GBCAs must be carefully evaluated.
GBCAs provide crucial, life-saving medical information. Each time a gadolinium-enhanced MRI study is considered, it would be prudent to consider the clinical benefit of the diagnostic information or treatment result that MRI or MRA may provide against the unknown potential risk of gadolinium deposition in the brain for each individual patient.

Particular attention should be paid to pediatric and other patients who may receive many GBCA-enhanced MRI studies over the course of their lifetimes. If the decision for an individual patient is made to use a GBCA for an MRI study, multiple factors need to be considered when selecting a GBCA, including diagnostic efficacy, relaxivity, rate of adverse reactions, dosing/concentration, and propensity to deposit in more sensitive organs such as the brain."

From: https://www.acr.org/-/media/ACR/File...ia.pdf#page=82

[Marco]

At the December RRMS Center conference, the doctors said they will only use contrast if they are concerned about new symptoms or aggressive MS. i plan on refusing glad at my next MRI.

I just declined it on my last exams. I would want it if I was concerned about an active flare up. There are no absolute answers.

I wish you well and a good MRI result

[Boudreaux]

I always decline the contrast...you could have low level demylination causing symptoms that even the contrast won't highlight.

[samanthaelizabeth]

Just had it done with contrast- The MRI guys said...

Just had it done with contrast- The MRI guys said... That Europe stopped using "linear gadolinium"Evidently they are way ahead of the U.S. when i comes to the FDA regulations. The MRI guy said they don't use linear gadolinium...Our FDA sucks!