The human body contains plenty of elements that ensure the proper composition and functioning of the organs. Calcium, magnesium, iron, sodium, potassium are some of the elements that make up our body. While a measured amount of all these elements ensure the safety of health, accumulation of any of these beyond a level can be harmful.
Even deadly diseases emerge out of such abnormal depositions. For example, iron is essential to maintain the health of the circulatory system. But, an excess of it is never a good thing for the body. Iron deposition in the brain beyond a limit can cause several diseases of fatal magnitude. Hence, the presence of the elements in the right amount is essential to maintain health.
Radiology is a specialized branch of medical care that helps detect the abnormal increase or decrease in the level of these elements. Through the inner body images that radiology captures, organ-specific abnormalities get traced easily. Gadolinium, or Gd, is an element that scientists have found to be present in the human body recently.
Deposition of the same in the brain can be malignant in nature. Hence, the healthcare system is trying to figure out ways to do away with the issue. In doing so, many physicians and radiologists are relying on GBCAs or Gadolinium-based contrast agents. Here are some of the common symptoms the Gadolinium deposition disease comes with.
Symptoms Of Gadolinium Deposition
An additional amount of any element in the body causes certain symptoms. Through these signs, the medical experts predict the presence of abnormalities in the body and try to detect the same using the latest technologies. The followings are some of the common problems a patient with an excessive level of Gd suffers from.
- Severe pain in the joints, bones, legs, and arms.
- Constant headache.
- A sensation of burning, sharp pins and needles, or cutting.
- Brain fog
- Reduced cognitive abilities.
- Nausea.
- Tightness in the feet and hands.
- Thickening of tendons, soft-tissues, and ligaments.
The Impact
It is needless to mention that Gadolinium deposition causes no good for your health. It only gives rise to troubles. A patient suffering from Gadolinium toxicity may have thick skin or feeling of nausea from time to time. Several studies have revealed that brain fog is a common symptom of this disease. Scientists are still working on the way out.
No research has so far confirmed an effective GBCA that can be beneficial for the patients suffering from Gd toxicity. Studies have also suggested that some of the GDCAs can stay for a long time in the body when they get inside through the MRI process. Gadolinium retention is responsible for this phenomenon.
The GBCA Debate
The medical world is still struggling to find a way out of the issue. Hence, the conclusive mention of the expert trio about the CBCA administration can be legally improper for the health care world. The trio mentioned Gadoteridol to be the best and the safest GBCA which Jeffrey Rogg, MD, with Rhode Island Hospital in Providence opposed frivolously.
Rogg further mentioned that the research of the trio depended on scientific research backed by Bracco Pharmaceutical. However, the conclusions were steadily in contradiction with the FDA provisions and the American College of Radiology contrast committee.
In his 9th July article in JACR, Rogg further cleared that claims regarding the efficacy of Gadoteridol would be improper since precise evidence is still pending. He also mentioned that it was a strong mention and was contrary to the norms and provisions of AMA and ACR.
The Defense
However, H. Benjamin Harvey, one of the experts to claim Gadoteridol’s effectiveness in treating Gd depositions, defended his position in ACR’s imaging journal through an article. The trio further clarified that they questioned the very existence of the Gadolinium deposition. And they never confirmed the superiority of Gadoteridol as a better GBCA than the others for the patient.
To the industry-backed research allegation of Rogg, the trio replied that they did not ignore the data. Instead, they highlighted the window of two months of Gadolinium retention. They further ensured that this is the time the symptoms take to appear prominently in a patient.
The trio that had Harvey, a lawyer, and a doctor in it, defended against all the factors Rogg mentioned to be misleading.
The debate revolved around the fact that no one should come up with a strong remark or a conclusion without much statistical evidence in hand. The domain of radiology is evolving every day and in the times to come, it will surely find the answers to this problem.
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