GADODIAMIDE IN RENAL-TRANSPLANT PATIENTS - EFFECTS ON RENAL-FUNCTION AND USEFULNESS AS A GLOMERULAR-FILTRATION RATE MARKER

Gadodiamide at a dose of 0.1 mmol/kg was administered intravenously to 10 renal transplanted patients with stable, impaired, or slowly deter iorating renal function (serum creatinine 194-362 mu mol/l). The patie nts were referred for contrast medium enhanced magnetic resonance imag ing to rule out possible graft circulation abnormalities. The excretio n of gadodiamide in urine was prolonged as compared with healthy contr ols. After 120 h 92% of the injected dose was excreted in urine and on ly 0.4% in faeces. The plasma clearance of gadodiamide was 28.6 +/- (S D) 5.5 ml/min (n = 10), and the renal clearance (0-72 h) was 26.3 ml/m in. The renal clearance of I-125-iothalamate for the same time period was 27.9 +/- 5.3 ml/min. Thus, gadodiamide is eliminated by glomerular filtration also in renal transplant patients with moderately to sever e impaired renal function, and gadodiamide clearance may serve as an a lternative marker for the determination of the glomerular filtration r ate. Serum values of creatinine and beta(2)-microglobulin and creatini ne clearance were unchanged by gadodiamide and neither was the urinary enzyme excretion significantly changed. These results suggest that th e renal tolerance to gadodiamide is good also in renal transplant pati ents with impaired renal function.