A COMPARISON OF A NONIONIC DIMER, IODIXANOL WITH A NONIONIC MONOMER, IOHEXOL IN LOW-DOSE INTRAVENOUS UROGRAPHY

A prospective, double-blind study of 392 patients randomized into four groups was performed to establish whether diagnostic intravenous urog rams could be obtained with a lower dose of iodine when using the dime ric, non-ionic contrast medium iodixanol compared with the monomeric, non-ionic iohexol. Patients received iodixanol or iohexol containing e ither 9 or 12 g of iodine (gI). The primary parameter was the diagnost ic quality of the 6 min film, assessed in a blinded fashion, by consen sus, by four radiologists. Iodixanol at both doses was diagnostic in o ver 90% of cases. Iohexol was only diagnostic in 74% (9 gI) and 81.8% (12 gI). Pairwise comparisons revealed that iodixanol 9 gI was signifi cantly better than both iohexol 9 gI (p = 0.0005) and 12 gI (p = 0.014 ). No significant difference was present for different doses within th e same contrast medium group. Iodixanol resulted in poorer bladder dis tension than iohexol. Iodixanol caused significantly less discomfort t han iohexol.