Sunday, October 12, 2008

Sporadic Hypocalcemia and Gadolinium

It turns out that not only do gadolinium-based contrast agents result in nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF), but certain ones can also interfere with some of the common assays for quantifying serum calcium, leading to sporadic hypocalcemia. The two widely used gado agents associated with this phenomenon are gadodiamide and gadoversetamide. It is especially true in patients with underlying renal insufficiency, as the gadolinium will hang around longer.

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