Dear AuntMinnie Member,
OK, this may sound weird, but we don't envy the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) right now. The agency is facing intense pressure to act on the issue of gadolinium retention from MRI contrast agents, but so far there are no peer-reviewed studies in the literature indicating that gadolinium retention actually hurts patients.
That's not to say there hasn't been a chorus of concern about the issue. From patient advocates to MRI safety experts, voices have been raised, expressing alarm that traces of gadolinium are being found in patients long after their MRI exams were performed -- in some cases years later. European regulators have even recommended that three gadolinium agents be taken off the market.
But the FDA doesn't want to act until it has stronger evidence of harm. So it's examining the issue in a meeting of its Medical Imaging Drugs Advisory Committee tomorrow in Maryland. The committee will hear from industry members, clinicians, and patient advocates on the gadolinium retention issue, with the goal of answering several key questions that will form the agency's regulatory approach to gadolinium going forward.
Features Editor Wayne Forrest has written a preview of tomorrow's meeting that you can read by clicking here. And be sure to check back in our MRI Community for more coverage of Friday's hearing at mri.auntminnie.com.
In a related story, researchers from New York City examined a slightly different aspect of gadolinium safety, immediate adverse reactions to MRI contrast administration. Find out what they learned by clicking here.
We round out our coverage of MRI safety with a report from France, where radiologists describe how they discovered a blanket smoldering in a PET/MRI scanner at the end of an exam. Learn why it happened by clicking here.
AI algorithm for PET/CT
Finally, visit our Artificial Intelligence Community for coverage of an algorithm that classifies bone lesions on PET/CT exams. That story is available by clicking here, or go to the community directly at ai.auntminnie.com.
