Incidence of nephrogenic systemic fibrosis after administration of gadoteric acid in patients on renal replacement treatment

Abstract

PurposeNephrogenic system fibrosis (NSF) is a rare complication detected in patients with renal insufficiency exposed to gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs). The aim of our study is to evaluate the prevalence of NSF in a cohort of patients on renal replacement treatment who underwent GBCA-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MethodWe retrospectively reviewed all the charts of kidney transplant (KT) recipients, patients on hemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) who received a uniform protocol for contrast material enhanced-MRI with gadoteric acid at our center from January 2004 to December 2017. ResultsThree-hundred forty-four patients (44.1% on HD, 11.3% on PD and 44.4% KT recipients) underwent 551 gadoteric acid-enhanced MRI.The median age of the patients was 58 years (IQR, 45–70 years) and 65.1% were men. Sixty-three patients (18.3%) had skin punch biopsy after integumentary assessment performed by a dermatologist. No cases of NSF were detected after a median follow-up of 4.5 years (IQR, 1.9–8.2 years). During this period of observation, 116 (33.7%) patients died and 11 (3.1%) were lost at follow-up. ConclusionsNone of the patients exposed to gadoteric acid developed NSF. Our results, in line with more recent studies, suggest that the use of gadoteric acid, a macrocyclic GBCA, appears safe even in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients receiving dialysis.