Usytė, Julija

Background: Iodinated contrast media (ICM) highlights anatomical boundaries and normal and pathological findings during radiological examinations. Although modern iodinated contrast agents are safe and rarely cause severe adverse reactions, there are still cases where a radiological examination with intravenous contrast material is either not performed, or premedication is administered due to a patient's reported iodine allergy. Most of the adverse reactions are not life-threatening, but 1 in 2500 patients may experience a severe and potentially life-threatening reaction due to the injected contrast material. The manifestation of hypersensitivity reactions may depend on the patient's age, gender, comorbidities, previous hypersensitivity reactions, other allergies, and some medications used. Our study aimed to compare skin allergic reactions in patient groups stratified by sex, comorbidities, and atopy.Method: A retrospective analysis of medical records from the Hospital of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kauno klinikos data register was made. The study cohort comprised 117 patients,of whom 93 were females (age 34–85, median – 66) and 24 males (age 38–79, median – 61). All subjects underwent skin prick tests and intradermal testing for ICM with the culprit (when known)and with the ICM commonly used in our hospital nonionic dimers(iodixanol) and nonionic monomers (iohexol, iopromide) between 2019 and 2023. Results: Positive test reactions were observed in seven females, constituting 7.5% of all examined females, and in 1 male, accounting for 4.2% of all males examined (p = 0.561). Positive reactions were observed only in individuals with comorbidities, that is, eight patients, representing 6.8% of all our subjects (p = 0.322). Five individuals without atopy also had positive skin tests for ICM (4.3% of all individuals) (p = 0.752). Conclusion: There is no significant difference in skin test positivity to ICM between women and men, patients with or without comorbidities, and individuals with or without atopy. However, there was a tendency for women to have more positive skin allergic reactions to ICM than men, as well as patients with comorbidities. Meanwhile, patients' atopy did not influence skin allergy test results in our study.Conflicts of Interest: The authors did not specify any links of interest.

Objectives. Iodinated contrast media (ICM) are widely used in radiological studies to highlight normal and pathological formations. Although modern iodinated contrast agents are safe and rarely cause severe adverse reactions, there are still cases where a radiological examination with ICM is either not performed or premedication is administered due to a patient’s reported ICM allergy. The manifestation of hypersensitivity reactions (HR) may depend on the patient’s age, gender, comorbidities, previous HR, other allergies, and some medications used. Our study aimed to compare the skin allergic reactions to ICM in the male and female populations. Materials and methods. A retrospective analysis of medical records from the Hospital of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kauno klinikos data register was made. The study cohort comprised 117 patients, of whom 93 were females (range of age: 34-85, median – 66) and 24 males (range of age: 38-79, median – 61). All subjects underwent skin prick tests and intradermal testing for ICM with the culprit (when known) and with the ICM commonly used in our hospital nonionic dimers (iodixanol) and nonionic monomers (iohexol, iopromide) between 2019 and 2023. Results. Among the women undergoing examinations, 47.3% had documented indications, and 48.4% had undocumented indications. Among the examined men, 41.7% had documented indications, and 54.2% had undocumented indications (p=0,878). Positive test reactions were observed in 7 women, among whom 5 (62.5%) had documented indications, 2 (25%) had undocumented indications. One positive reaction was also observed in a male (12.5%) with documented indications (p=0,537). Conclusions. There is no significant difference in skin test positivity to ICM between women and men. However, there is a tendency for positive allergic reactions to ICM to be more frequent in women, as well as higher associations with documented indications for testing.

Introduction In medical imaging, contrast media can help to distinguish between different tissues in the body and improve the accuracy of disease diagnosis (1). Iodinated contrast media (ICM) have been recognized decades ago as allergenic agents (2). According to various studies, allergic hypersensitivity reactions (HR) occur in 1 in 170,000 subjects (4). Modern contrast agents are safe for use with a low incidence of adverse side effects (3). The manifestation of HR may depend on the patient's age, gender, comorbidities, previous HR, other allergies, and some medications used (5). The objective of our study was to compare the manifestation of allergic HR to ICM between individuals with different comorbidities. [...].

Background. Iodinated contrast media (ICM) highlights anatomical boundaries and normal and pathological findings during radiological examinations. According to various studies, these substances are considered safe; however, allergic hypersensitivity reactions (HR) occur in 1 in 170,000 reactions. The manifestation of HR may depend on the patient’s age, gender, comorbidities, previous HR, other allergies, and some medications used. Aim. The current study aimed to assess positive skin allergic reactions to ICM in individuals with and without allergies. Methods. A retrospective analysis of medical records from the Hospital of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences Kauno klinikos data register was made. The study cohort comprised 117 patients, of whom 37 were subjects with allergies (range of age: 41–84, median – 67) and 80 subjects without allergies (range of age: 34–85, median – 63). All subjects underwent skin prick tests and intradermal testing for ICM with the culprit (when known) and with the ICM commonly used in our hospital nonionic dimers (iodixanol) and nonionic monomers (iohexol, iopromide) between 2019 and 2023. Results. Among the individuals with allergies, three tested positive for a reaction to ICM (2.6% of all individuals), while the remaining individuals tested negative (91.9% in the group of people with allergies). Additionally, five individuals without any history of allergic reactions showed a positive response to ICM (4.3% of all individuals) (p = 0.752). Conclusion. There is no significant difference in skin test positivity to ICM between individuals with allergies and those without. Past reactions to any contrast media may increase the likelihood of experiencing hypersensitivity reactions in the future.