Imaging Contrast

Contrast agents are injected into patients to help enhance images to make it easier for radiologists distinguish specific areas of the body from surrounding tissues. The most commonly used agents are iodinated contrast dye for computed tomography (CT), interventional cath lab angiography,  RF fluoroscopy, and in surgical OR procedures. MRI scans typically use gadolinium-based contrast agents. Ultrasound and echocardiography (cardiac ultrasound) imaging use contrast agents composed of microscopic bubbles to enhance images that otherwise would be suboptimal.

GE Healthcare program recycles departments' leftover iodinated contrast for future use

In 2006, the company started an iodine recycling program for imaging departments that had leftover contrast that would go to waste at the end of the day if left unused. That program expanded into the U.S. and Canada in 2021.

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GE Healthcare's $80 million investment furthers mission to increase contrast media production

This latest move—one of many made by GE recently—contributes to the company’s goal of upping contrast media production by an additional 30 million doses by the year 2025. 

synthetic contrast-enhanced breast MRI

Are synthetic contrast-enhanced breast MRI images as good as the real thing?

Synthesizing contrast-enhanced imaging from pre-contrast inputs using deep learning can help overcome obstacles involved in the use of GBCAs.

Iodinated contrast use before, during and after COVID: Trends predict significant growth in demand

A new analysis suggests that, if the use of iodinated contrast were to follow pre-pandemic trends, it could rise by as much as 37% from 2019. 

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GE Healthcare set to bolster supply of iodinated contrast media

These moves are part of a broader plan to increase the supply of iodine raw material, eventually enabling the production of an additional 30 million doses of iodinated contrast media annually by the year 2025. 

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Experts share positive news for women who have undergone multiple GBCA exposures during breast MRI

Authors of the new study stated that their findings are “reassuring” for both clinicians and patients.

New contrast agent receives FDA approval after competitors collaborate on development

The Sept. 21 announcement states that Gadopiclenol Injection—a highly stable macrocyclic gadolinium-based contrast agent—is approved for use in adult and pediatric patients aged 2 years and older during MRI exams.

contrast enhanced mammography

Scoring system outperforms BI-RADS assessments of contrast-enhanced mammography exams

For specificity—a metric that has been somewhat unpredictable in breast MRI and CEM—the scoring system performed significantly better than BI-RADS.

Around the web

The newly approved PET radiotracer is expected to improve patient care significantly. “We have been able to reach the pinnacle of myocardial perfusion imaging with flurpiridaz," one expert said.

GE HealthCare's flurpiridaz, the PET radiotracer that recently received FDA approval, offers several key benefits over SPECT. Jamshid Maddahi, MD, discussed the details in an exclusive interview. 

Ultrafast MCE could go on to become a go-to treatment option for obstructive coronary artery disease, according to the authors of a new first-in-human clinical study.

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