Injury added to insult: Dyes injected for imaging are more dangerous than the MRIs

Wednesday, December 09, 2009 by: Paul Louis, staff writer
Tags: imaging dyes, MRIs, health news

(Natural News) By now most Natural News readers are aware of the dangers from excessive CT scans, X-Rays, and other imaging health screenings. But what about those dyes injected into your body for the purpose of increasing image contrast and clarity?

If you take a dye for an MRI (magnetic resonance imagery) examination orally, your chances of danger from that dye are slim and none. It's the ones that are injected that can cause problems. They are known as gadolinium based contrast agents or GBCAs.

GBCA warnings for patients with obvious kidney disorders have usually been heeded. But the GBCA manufacturers dispute notions that their products cause a certain unusual skin disorder known as Nephgrogenic Systemic Fibrosis (NFS) or Nephrogenic Fibrosing Dermopathy (NFD). By either name it's a horrible and potentially fatal disease.

NFS/NFD symptoms include extreme swelling of extremities, loss of feeling with leathery skin, and locked joints forcing victims to become wheel chair bound. Allopathic medicine has no cure for NFS/NFD. This disease is rare because only gadolinium based contrast agents cause it!

As a metal, gadolinium is very responsive to the magnetic imaging of MRI machines. But it is a poison. Its toxicity is temporarily curtailed by chelating it with chemicals to liquefy it so that it will be sorted out by the kidneys and eliminated. This is why patients with obvious kidney or liver problems should not be injected with GBCAs.

But what if one is unaware of an existing renal (kidney) or liver issue? Even worse, the injected agents can harm healthy kidneys making elimination difficult. If the GBCA is not eliminated within 20 hours, the chelating bonds that enable the gadolinium to be eliminated release from the metal. Then the gadolinium remains in the body and victimizes the patient permanently with NSF/NFD.

The FDA released a memo on gadolinium based contrast agents this past November. They warned that GBCAs provided by Covidien, GE Healthcare, and Bayer are more hazardous than others. But the memo also mentioned that the FDA would consider recommending blanket label warnings rather than pointing out specific brands.

Contrasting the FDA and drug firm positions, DeConti Law does not equivocate about the dangers of injected gadolinium based contrast agents. They are a national law firm with 30 years experience, and they are confident enough to sue GBCA firms on a contingency basis. (DeConti Law, source below)

Sources for this article include:

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/id...

http://www.decarlilaw.com/Dangerous-Drugs/MR...