magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents: a review of literature

magnetic resonance imaging (mri) contrast agents most commonly agents used in diagnosing different diseases. several agents have been ever introduced with different peculiar characteristics. they vary in potency, adverse reaction and other specification, so it is important to select the proper agent in different situations. we conducted a systematic literature search in medline/pubmed, web of science (isi), scopus, google scholar by using keywords “gadolinium” and “mri contrast medias”, “gadofosvest”, “gadobenate” and “gadoxetate”. the most frequent contrast media agents made based on gadolinium (gd). these are divided into two categories based on the structure of their chelating parts, linear agents and macrocyclic agents. all characteristics of contrast media factors, including efficiency, kinetic properties, stability, side effects and the rate of resolution are directly related to the structure of chelating part of that formulation. in vitro data has shown that the macrocyclic compounds are the most stable gd-ca as they do not bind to serum proteins, they all possess similar and relatively low relaxivity and the prevalence of nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (nsf) has decreased by increasing the use of macrocyclic agents in recent years. no cases of nsf have been recorded after the administration of any of the high-relaxivity protein interacting agents, the vascular imaging agent gadofosveset trisodium (ablavar), the hepatic imaging agent gadoxetate meglumine (eovist), and the multipurpose agent gadobenate dimeglumine (multihance). in pregnancy and lactating women, stable macrocyclic agent is recommended.