Gadolinium injection used to get a better MRI image can cause a rare disease in people with kidney problems.
What is it?
Nephrogenic fibrosing dermopathy (NFD) also known as nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) is a rare disease in which scar tissue forms on the skin and internal organs.
This disease is often simply referred to as NFD/NSF.
Many medical terms come from Latin or Greek and this one is no exception.
Nephro comes from the Greek nephros meaning kidney, and genic comes from the Greek genes which means to cause something. So the term nephrogenic means beginning in the kidneys.
Dermo comes from a Greek word meaning skin and pathy comes from the Greek pathos meaning disease. So dermopathy is a disease of the skin.
Fibrosis is scar tissue that replaces healthy tissue that is damaged through disease or injury. Fibrosing means forming or causing to form scar tissue.
So in summary, nephrogenic fibrosing dermopathy is a disease beginning in the kidneys in which scar tissue is formed on the skin.
Gadolinium injection used to get a better MRI image can cause this disease in people with kidney problems.
How Is It Caused?
The kidneys exist to remove from the blood stream excess water and certain chemicals which result from the burning of food in the body. One of these, urea, a substance rich in nitrogen, gives urine its name.
When the kidneys don’t do their job dangerous chemicals such as urea accumulate in the body and threaten the health and life of the individual. This failure of the kidneys to properly perform in known as “renal insufficiency”. ( Renal is the medical term for kidneys and, of course, comes from a Latin term, Renes meaning kidneys.)
“Chronic renal insufficiency does not, by itself, mean complete shutdown of the kidneys, and a person with chronic renal insufficiency may still pass urine normally, and may have more than enough kidney function left for normal functioning of the body.
Note that you cannot judge the efficiency of your kidneys by the amount of urine you produce. People with quite advanced renal insufficiency, and even people on dialysis may still produce a fair amount of urine. But this does not mean that the kidneys are filtering waste nor regulating [other chemical levels]...efficiently.” Source: The Foundation for IgA Nephropathy.
Dialysis is a method for eliminating unwanted chemical elements from the blood.
When the kidneys don’t work properly, doctors, kidney experts, examine it using a special type of x ray known as MRI which stands for magnetic resonance imaging. This special type of x ray is done after a special substance known as a dye or contrast agent is injected into the body. This special type of x ray is known as angiography.
Angio comes from the Greek word aggeion meaning blood vessel Graphy comes from the Greek graphos meaning written or writing. In a sense the angiography is a drawing or picture of a blood vessel or of something related such as the heart.
Renal angiography is taking pictures of an important kidney blood vessel and related blood vessels after dye is injected
Gadolinium is the substance that is injected. It is a contrast agent which is a dye, taken by mouth or injected, that is sometimes used during x ray examinations to highlight (make easy to notice) areas that otherwise might not be seen. The dye makes the interior body parts more visible on an x ray film. Gadolinium is a rare metallic element.
Gadolinium can be found in tissue samples of NFD/NSF.
Evidence for a link between NFD/NSF was first described in a series of thirteen patients, all of whom developed the disease after being exposed to Gadolinium. Source: Journal of American Society of Nephrology, September 2006.
Author Resource:
Rex Bush is founder of Bush Law Firm near Salt Lake City, Utah where he handles personal injury cases in Utah and throughout the United States. For more information on personal injury issues visit his website: http://www.utah-personal-injury-attorney.com
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