The previous research they conducted already spurred the hospital to use contrast in patients with impaired renal function. However, they don't give contrast to all of their patients. McDonald said that they give 95 percent of the patients contrast but not the other 5 percent, since they have the most severe form of kidney injury.

"We are still judicious in the use of contrast in this group of patients who are potentially at highest risk for CIN," said McDonald. "In these patients, we administer contrast only after discussion with the ordering physician, when the use of contrast is deemed to be beneficial or when the risk of missing a diagnosis outweighs the potential risk of an adverse event."


He thinks the findings are a "reasonable first step" but that it's not definitive proof that CIN does not exist at all. But what they did find is that if it does exist, then it's extremely uncommon.

Going forward, he thinks that the worry concerning the phenomenon will fade, but that it will take time. "This has been medical dogma for 60 years and we expect it will take years to 'convince' the medical community," he said. "In order to accomplish this, these results need to be disseminated."

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