Acute hemodynamic effects of intravenous bolus injection of ionic and nonionic magnetic resonance contrast media.
RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: With the development of fast magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, bolus injection of contrast media is often required. We evaluated the acute hemodynamic effects of intravenous (i.v.) bolus injection of two MR contrast media: ionic gadopentetate dimeglumine and nonionic gadoteridol. METHODS: Twenty normal rats were anesthetized, and the left ventricular pressure (LVP), right atrial pressure (RAP), peripheral arterial pressure (PAP), positive rate pressure development (dP/dt) of the left ventricle, and heart rate were continuously monitored up to 10 min after bolus injections of 0.1, 0.3, and 0.5 mmol/kg of either media. RESULTS: Bolus injections of gadopentetate dimeglumine induced temporal reduction of the blood pressure (the peak LVP was -25.0% at 0.5 mmol/kg and -13.2% at 0.3 mmol/kg). At the injected doses of 0.5 and 0.3 mmol/kg, the systolic PAP, mean PAP, and dP/dt were reduced. The lowest peak systolic LVP was observed at around 20 sec after injection. Those suppressed values returned to the control values within 120 sec. Injection of high doses of gadoteridol caused a temporal increase in the peak systolic LVP (9.2% at 0.5 mmol/kg and 7.4% at 0.3 mmol/kg), systolic PAP, and dP/dt. Approximately 15 sec after injection, the highest peak systolic LVP was observed, and within 30 sec the value normalized. With both ionic and nonionic contrast media, a dose of 0.1 mmol/kg did not cause significant changes in hemodynamics. CONCLUSION: In normal rats, bolus i.v. injection of high-dose gadopentetate dimeglumine has negative hemodynamic effects; gadoteridol produces mild positive effects.