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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Two prominent experts in the radiology community called this month for more research into two contrast agents, the drugs that help sharpen the images from an MRI, noting that they may cause the toxic metal gadolinium to wind up in the brain, ProPublica’s Jeff Gerth reports today.
And in fact, ProPublica has extensively covered the potential dangers of one of the drugs: Ominscan, made by GE Healthcare and once a top seller.<script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://pixel.propublica.org/pixel.js” async=”true”></script>
Highlights from Gerth’s post today:
- Writing in the journal “Radiology,” the two researchers, Dr. Emanuel Kanal and Michael Tweedle, cited three recent studies that found the toxic metal gadolinium can wind up in the brain tissues of MRI patients who used Omniscan.
- As we’ve reported, contrast agents like Omniscan had been on the market for years when, in 2006, they were linked to a crippling, sometimes fatal condition called nephrogenic systemic fibrosis, or NSF. The Food and Drug Administration put a “black box” warning on the drugs the following year.
- Estimates are that about one-third of the 20 million MRIs conducted in the United States each year involve a contrast agent.
- GE and Bayer, who make the contrast agents, have confidentially settled hundreds of lawsuits – many involving deaths – while denying liability for the agents.
The full article is here: http://www.propublica.org/
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