X Ray Contrast Media

Short presentation of aspects important for the application of X-ray contrast media: Composition and properties of contrast media, handling with respect to stability, purity and sterility; applications, interaction, risks; drugs for prophylaxis and treatment of side effects.

This book documents the fascinating history of radiological techniques that use contrast agents. The text includes many of the fundamental documentary sources that bring to life the social and scientific background of the discoveries, the personalities of the discoverers, and implementation of new technologies. Such agents when used with X-rays allow clinicians to distinguish anatomical structures with nearly identical densities. Focus is on urological and angiographic uses of contrast agents. Key selling features: Documents and thoroughly references the history of contrast agent development Reviews the priority and importance of patents Discusses the role that important individual scientists and leading research institutions have played in technology development and implementation

Journalists, always very direct and in search of sensation, essentially asked me two questions on the occasion of this workshop: What were the goals of the meeting? With the improvement of diagnosis through the development of image techniques, didn't the contrast media already have their future behind them? Many answers were provided during the course of the workshop, and in order to best answer the journalists I proposed the following synopsis. 1. Since the 1979 Colorado Springs workshop organized by E. Lasser, progress has been so rapid and the newly available works so numerous that another meeting on an international level for the purpose of pre senting and discussing these advances appeared indispensable. Why not then in Europe and why not in Lyon? To expand on this progress, by 1981 the new contrast media with less-hyperosmolar molecules, still in the trial stage in 1979, were al most all available commercially for angiography, albeit at prohibitive prices. The advantages of these various media are becoming better known; moreover, in the wake of Lasser's work, our understanding of the pathophysiology of their noxious effects is also advancing rapidly owing to the use of models (for the target organs: heart, vessel wall, nervous system, kidney; and for the more general reactions: blood cells, coagulation, complement system, circulating enzymatic systems). In addition, further new molecules are currently being studied in re search laboratories. 2.

A fully integrated view of the medical and surgical aspects of both vascular and cardiovascular disease. Covering the complete spectrum of angiology, from basic physiologic principles to phlebology, this is the only text of its kind, and will thus be a must for the libraries of cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons alike.

This open access book is an overview on CT/X-ray contrast media designed for radiologists and other medical specialists who use contrast media in imaging and interventional procedures as well as related scientists on the use and pharmaceutical aspects of X-ray contrast media. The overall goal of this book is to provide a comprehensive overview relevant for the optimal use of x-ray contrast media covering next to the historic development, their structure and properties also practical information for handling of contrast media, and explanation of the relevant risks during use and measures for prevention and treatment of potential side effects.

This textbook systematically reviews the working principles and modes of application of techniques applicable to noninvasive and invasive vascular examinations. The authors cover the essential physical and/or chemical principles of each diagnostic modality and so derive the characteristics of the diagnostic instrumentation. Physicians thus learn how to translate advanced technology into optimum diagnostic efficacy in daily clinical routine.

For all that new non-X-ray technologies such as MR and ultrasound and its various manifestations have made an enormous impact in recent years on the practice of medical imaging, the use of X-rays and X-ray contrast-enhancing agents has retained an important position at the heart of the process. Indeed, with its frequent requirements for high total dose regimes, CT has increased the use of contrast agents. Even helical/spiral CT which, it was initially argued, should reduce contrast as well as radiation loads, may actually require just as much or more of both because of the potential it offers for multi-phase scanning. Iodinated intravascular X-ray contrast agents, especially the more recently developed non-ionic agents, continue therefore to play a pivotal role in clinical imaging. These succinct and authoritative articles, originally appearing in the journal Advances in X-ray Contrast, range sufficiently widely for their compilation in this volume to be considered a mini-textbook on the water-soluble iodinated X-ray contrast agents and their applications. Each is written by an acknowledged and experienced expert in the field. They usefully cover the developmental history of the agents; defined risk factors, approaches to prophylaxis and, ultimately, of the treatment of adverse reactions; the interesting subject of supposed delayed reactions to contrast agents; the important organ-specific toxicities, cardiac toxicity, neurotoxicity and nephrotoxicity and high-dose toxicity as encountered in complex procedures; the sometimes special circumstances and occasional extreme conditions to which contrast agents may be exposed in Interventional Radiology; the special, in several ways, case of paediatric radiology; the controversial subject of thromboembolic phenomena in clinical angiography; and the precise role of contrast agents. As regards the practicalities of contrast administration regimes and imaging protocols it is really only in the area of CT that there is debate and controversy, and articles are included which cover CT of the liver, spleen and pancreas, and protocols for the new spiral/helical technology and even for the much less widely available electron-beam CT technology visualization. Pulmonary embolus diagnosis and protocols for contrast administration with this technology are also discussed.

Two years only after the publication of the ? rst edition of “Contrast media – Safety issues and ESUR guidelines” in our book series Medical Radiology in 2006, it appeared that a second edition was urgently needed. The ? rst edition was indeed an exceptional success with our readership and sold out rapidly, but moreover the safety of MR contrast media urgently required a reappraisal after the publication of a new and dramatic adverse reaction to some of the gadolini- based agents: the so called NSF syndrome. I am very much indebted to Professor Henrik S. Thomsen and his academic colleagues from the ESUR Contrast Medium Safety Committee for accepting the task to prepare a second edition of their remarkable book.Within a record short period of time they have been able to complete this fully revised new volume. It offers to the readers a comprehensive overview of all problems related to the use of contrast media in modern radiology and of our latest knowledge and insights in the mechanisms of adverse reactions related to contrast media. It answers all questions that radiologists and referring physicians are confronted with in their daily practice when they consider the administration of these agents to their patients.