GE Healthcare said that in a recent study its Visipaque contrast agent was less likely to provide discomfort for patients during abdominal CT scans than Bracco Diagnostics' Isovue agent.
Results from the prospective, randomized, double-blind, parallel-group study were published online in Acta Radiologica. A team led by Dr. Frederick Weiland, of Sutter Roseville Hospital in Roseville, CA, compared contrast-induced patient discomfort and overall safety following contrast administration in 299 patients receiving Visipaque 320 mg I/mL or Isovue 370 mg I/mL for CT of the abdomen/pelvis at nine centers in the U.S. and Europe.
They found that patients receiving Visipaque experienced significantly less moderate/severe discomfort (35.1% versus 67.3%, p < 0.0001) or heat (29.8% versus 63.9%, p < 0.0001) and severe discomfort (2.6% versus 16.3%, p < 0.0004) or heat (2.6% versus 15%, p = 0.0008) than patients receiving Isovue, GE said. In addition, 21.2% of Visipaque patients had no discomfort from contrast administration, compared with 7.5% of Isovue patients (p = 0.0008).
In other findings, overall image quality was graded as excellent for 95.4% of patients in the Visipaque group and 89.9% of patients in the Isovue group, GE said. That difference did not reach statistical significance, however (p = 0.0508).
Other than for patient discomfort, the two agents did not show a statistically significant difference in adverse events during the trial. While there were reports of skin reactions in patients receiving Visipaque but not in those receiving Isovue, the difference wasn't statistically significant, GE said.
