Lack of nephrotoxicity of gadodiamide in unselected hospitalized patients

Background: The nephrotoxicity of gadolinium-based magnetic resonance contrast media has not been adequately studied. Methods: We evaluated the nephrotoxicity of gadolinium-based contrast media in hospitalized patients who underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as part of routine clinical care. Subjects who had a serum creatinine measurement during the 7 days before MRI and at least 1 other measurement 2 to 3 days after MRI were included. Patients who underwent noncontrasted MRI served as controls. Results: There were 162 subjects (mean age, 57.8 ± 16.9 years; 91 men and 71 women) and 125 controls (mean age, 64.6 ± 18 years; 62 men and 63 women). All contrast-enhanced MRI studies utilized gadodiamide (Omniscan™; GE Healthcare, Waukesha, WI). Subjects who received gadodiamide showed no difference in the incidence of acute renal insufficiency compared with controls (increase in serum creatinine ≥ 25%, 11.1% vs 12.9%, respectively; P = 0.6; increase in serum creatinine by 0.5 mg/dL, 5.6% vs 3.2%, respectively; P = 0.4). There was no significant increase in serum creatinine baseline versus 48 hours in either the subjects who received gadodiamide (0.95 ± 0.58 vs 0.96 ± 0.65 mg/dL; P = 0.7) or controls (0.96 ± 0.65 vs 0.88 ± 0.43 mg/dL; P = 0.7). Conclusion: Our findings showed a lack of significant nephrotoxicity of gadodiamide in unselected hospitalized patients.