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MRI Dye Linked to Disease

By Beth Janicek

Another person has joined the 516 other plaintiffs in a massive lawsuit against the pharmaceutical companies that make certain dyes used for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The dye is used during an MRI to help technicians examine the tissue.

Patients with healthy kidneys can simply flush the gadolinium out of their system, but people with renal impairment can be diagnosed with nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) after being injected with the contrast agent. Patients diagnosed with NSF describe their skin turning wood-like, eventually cracking. The disease can then move to the organs where it can become fatal.

Patrick Barry of Providence law firm Morowitz and Barry, attorney for the most recent plaintiff told investigators that his client's condition became so bad she had to have a finger amputated.

He said 'Imagine if you're wearing very right gloves then you tried to bend your fingers. It's very tough to do and the skin will actually break down on the knuckles.'

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning in 2006 and 2007 not to administer the drug to patients with kidney problems, but gadolinium is still used in routine MRI's. As more people are diagnosed with NSF, the class-action lawsuit against five pharmaceutical companies that make gadolinium-based contrasting agents is getting larger.

Barry said, 'We want to uncover exactly what the manufacturers knew and when. How much information did they have and what did they do with it?'

Ryan Fitzgerald, company spokesman for GE Healthcare issued a statement that says, '…no definitive causal relationship between the administration of gadolinium-based contrast agents to patients with moderate to severe renal impairment and NSF has ever been found.' However, according to Barry, the FDA researched 75 patients diagnosed with NSF, and found that each one had been administered gadolinium before their MRI.

According to the Official site of the Nephrogenic Fibrosing Dermopathy Research (AKA Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis) whether or not the association of NSF with gadolinium exposure is the common denominator of all NSF cases is still under investigation.

'A verifiable cause and effect relationship has not yet been established, but active efforts to prove or refute this relationship are underway.'

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Beth Janicek

Full post as published by San Antonio Personal Injury Lawyer on July 14, 2009 (boomark / email).