Contrast media toxicity in children

Excerpt

Overall, adverse reactions to contrast media (CM), either iodinated agents used primarily for CT and angiography or gadolinium-containing chelates for MRI, are unusual. Severe adverse drug reactions (ADR) are encountered only rarely. Fatal ADRs to CM have been reported but should be considered extremely rare. Most published information about ADRs to contrast media focuses on adult patients; the little epidemiologic information from pediatric populations is sparse. Part of the problem leading to this general lack of information on contrast media reactions in children is that clinical trials performed to justify governmental approval of new agents are invariably performed in adult subjects; if children are included at all they are typically a late addition Many of the contrast media formulations used commonly in children and many of the common applications for which CM are now employed were never specifically tested or governmentally approved for children; such uses are termed “off-label”. …