FDA Drug Safety Podcast: FDA identifies no harmful effects to date with brain retention of gadolinium-based contrast agents for MRIs; review to continue
Welcome to FDA Drug Safety Podcasts for health care professionals from the Division of Drug Information.
On May 22, 2017, FDA announced that to date a review has not identified adverse health effects from gadolinium retained in the brain after the use of gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs) for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). All GBCAs may be associated with some gadolinium retention in the brain and other body tissues. However, because we identified no evidence to date that gadolinium retention in the brain from any of the GBCAs, including GBCAs associated with higher retention of gadolinium, is harmful, restricting GBCA use is not warranted at this time. We will continue to assess the safety of GBCAs and plan to have a public meeting to discuss this issue in the future.
Health care professionals should continue to limit GBCA use to circumstances in which additional information provided by the contrast agent is necessary, and assess the necessity of repetitive MRIs with GBCAs. Retention of gadolinium affects only GBCAs, and does not apply to other types of scanning agents used for imaging procedures, such as those that are iodine-based or radioisotopes.
GBCAs contain gadolinium, a type of heavy metal, that is linked to a carrier molecule. GBCAs are injected into a vein to enhance the quality of the MRI images of internal organs, blood vessels, and tissues, which helps health care professionals diagnose medical conditions. There are two types of GBCAs based on their chemical structure linear GBCAs and macrocyclic GBCAs.
To date, the only known adverse health effect related to gadolinium retention is a rare condition called nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) that occurs in a small subgroup of patients with pre-existing kidney failure. NSF is a painful skin disease characterized by thickening of the skin, which can involve the joints and cause significant limitation of motion within weeks to months. Recent publications report cases of reactions involving thickening and hardening of the skin and other tissues in patients with normal kidney function who received GBCAs and did not have NSF; some of these patients also had evidence of gadolinium retention. We are continuing to evaluate such reports to determine if these fibrotic reactions are an adverse health effect of retained gadolinium.
Side effects involving GBCAs should be reported to FDA’s MedWatch program at www.fda.gov/medwatch.
A link to the full communication detailing information for health care professionals and the Data Summary can be found at www.fda.gov/DrugSafetyCommunications. If you have drug questions, you can reach us at
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Related Information
- FDA Drug Safety Communication: FDA identifies no harmful effects to date with brain retention of gadolinium-based contrast agents for MRIs; review to continue
- FDA Drug Safety Podcast: FDA identifies no harmful effects to date with brain retention of gadolinium-based contrast agents for MRIs; review to continue