If you have received an MRI with contrast dye, you could be at risk for gadolinium deposition disease.

Doctors often order MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) tests with gadolinium-based contrast dyes. Gadolinium is a heavy metal that helps sharpen images in an MRI. Optimum imagery is important to detect cancer, view small blood vessels and detect abnormalities in the internal organs.

For decades, doctors have known about a condition called NSF (nephrogenic systemic fibrosis) that may develop in patients who suffer from kidney problems. Such patients are advised not to receive gadolinium contrast dyes.

NSF causes the skin to swell and tighten, becoming and thick and hard over time. The skin might feel itchy or develop a burning pain with blisters or open ulcers. When NSF was originally diagnosed, doctors believed only the skin was affected. NSF was originally known as NFD (nephrogenic fibrosing dermopathy). Further research found that NSF can cause the tendons and muscles to become shortened and contracted, potentially disabling the patient. Over time, NSF can damage the heart, kidneys, and lungs.

New research has begun because patients with normally functioning kidneys are reporting side effects after receiving MRIs with contrast dye. Gadolinium deposition disease is not yet officially recognized by the medical community or the FDA, but the FDA did issue a safety alert in December 2017. Patients who had received an MRI with a gadolinium-based contrast dye were warned that the metal possibly could be retained in their bodies for months or years.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging, a medical journal for radiologists, included a report by Dr. Richard Semelka and others of the Department of Radiology at the University of North Carolina. The authors wrote that a variety of similar symptoms affected patients who had normal kidney function, but these patients purportedly suffered gadolinium deposition disease after receiving the contrast-based MRI.

Dr. Semelka is credited with creating the term gadolinium deposition disease, which is gadolinium toxicity and retention in a patient who also is thought to have an immune response to the heavy metal.

Gadolinium Deposition Disease Symptoms

A wide range of side effects serve as indicators a patient might be suffering from gadolinium deposit disease, which is caused by the body retaining certain amounts of the contrast dye that stays in the brain and/or the bones.

Among the most commonly reported symptoms possibly indicative of gadolinium deposit disease are:

• Bone pain
• Painful, burning sensation of the skin
• Brain fog (mental confusion)
• Muscle twitches
• Pins and needles skin sensations, indicative of neuropathy
• Skin thickening and discoloration, to a lesser degree than seen in NSF
• Kidney problems

The authors said toxic renal (kidney) failure, acute pancreatitis, and even severe necrotizing pancreatitis have been linked to gadolinium toxicity.

Currently, gadolinium deposition disease is treated with anti-inflammatories and antihistamines. No cure is known at this time.