Dear AuntMinnie Member,
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may soon be taking additional action regarding gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs). In a Friday hearing, an advisory committee voted to recommend that the agency require that information about gadolinium retention be added to the labeling of GBCA products.
The move came after a daylong hearing of the Medical Imaging Drugs Advisory Committee (MIDAC). MIDAC members heard at-times impassioned testimony from radiologists, MRI safety experts, and patients about gadolinium retention, in which traces of the heavy metal remain in the body tissue of patients long after they had MRI scans.
The phenomenon has flummoxed the FDA, as the mechanism behind gadolinium retention still isn't fully understood, and trace elements of GBCAs haven't been linked to any proven health effects (although patient advocates would argue that last point). But pressure is growing for the FDA to act, especially given gadolinium's checkered safety record with issues such as nephrogenic systemic fibrosis.
In addition to asking for the warning-label text, the committee voted to recommend that manufacturers of gadolinium contrast be required to perform studies on gadolinium retention that hopefully will shed new light on the issue.
Gadolinium patient groups may feel that the committee's moves don't go far enough, but at least they are a step in the right direction toward understanding more about gadolinium retention. Read more about last week's hearing and what action the panel is recommending by clicking here, or visit our MRI Community at mri.auntminnie.com.
Streamlining CT efficiency
With today's focus on workflow and efficiency, you need to keep your radiology department as streamlined as possible. We offer some advice on tackling a major workflow bottleneck in a new article in our CT Community.
Researchers from Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia decided to address one of the big issues at their institution: wait times for outpatient CT exams. They analyzed their workflow to identify inefficiencies and found several problems that, once addressed, helped reduce wait times and increase patient throughput.
Learn how they did it by clicking here, or visit our CT Community at ct.auntminnie.com.
Radiology responds to Harvey
Finally, visit our Imaging Leaders Community to find out how radiology responded to Tropical Storm Harvey, which inundated the Houston metropolitan area with more than 40 inches of rainfall in a few days. The crisis brought out the best in radiology professionals who rode out the storm, as you'll learn by clicking here.
