MRI Health Risk: Entombed by Your Own Skin

Pitman, NJThere isn't a man or woman alive who doesn't want to feel comfortable in his or her own skin. It's become a catch phrase for emotional well-being. However, beyond the metaphor nobody gives a thought to the skin we are in. It's there, it fits, it's soft and pliable. You can move in it. But what if you couldn't? What if your skin was so hard, it felt like a tomb? And what if that MRI you had, caused an MRI health risk?

Most people equate MRI, or Magnetic Resonance Imaging, as the life-saving process that peers inside your body and highlights life-sapping tumors and other maladies that the surgeon will deal with later. Beyond the X-ray, which detects abnormalities with your bone structure, the MRI looks at soft tissue.

But not before, in most cases, an image contrasting agent is injected into the body in order for the MRI technician to see a clearer, more defined picture. More often than not these are gadolinium-based agents, five of which are approved for use by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in this country.

While gadolinium can prove toxic, in reality it appears to be a non-issue for most people once the kidneys do their work and expel the chemical from the body, along with the urine. Some people are affected by trace amounts, but that seems to be rare.

The concern is when the kidneys are unable to rid the body of the toxic contrasting agent. This is often the case for patients who experience kidney problems, have weak kidneys or suffer from renal failure. Such patients are supposed to be carefully screened prior to an MRI, and before a gadolinium-based contrast agent is administered.

However, this is not often the case. While the MRI itself can be a life-saving procedure, the gadolinium-based contrasting agent for a patient with renal insufficiency can mean a lifetime of pain, or even death from Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis (NSF) or Nephronic Fibrosing Dermopathy (NFD).

That will sound like a bunch of Latin to most, so let's simplify it. NSF / NFD is a disease of the skin, and while rare, has been linked to exposure to gadolinium-based contrasting agents, and primarily for those with kidney issues. Thus, when an MRI is ordered and a contrasting agent is injected for the procedure, the patient with weak kidneys can't get rid of the stuff as efficiently as the next guy. The result is that the toxic chemical stays in the system much, much longer—if it can even be expelled at all.

What happens then? Let's go back to the opening paragraph, and the skin that you feel so comfortable in today. That's not the case with NSF / NFD.

In reality, your skin becomes a tomb—and you have no escape.

The condition is characterized by a hardening of the skin, especially on the limbs and the torso. The face, it appears, is the only part of the human body that is spared.

It begins with dry skin, and skin that is prone to cracking at the joints—elbows and knees, fingers, wrists and knuckles. This can result in painful lesions and sores. But that's not the half of it. Over time, the dryness and the hardening spreads, impeding movement. With normally supple skin, you can move any which way and not even think about it.

With NSF / NFD, suddenly you can't bend your elbow, or when you go to grab a glass the skin atop, and below your knuckles crack, and ooze. Either you can't move, or you're reluctant to in the event you create another painful lesion in the skin. Some NSF / NFD patients report a constant, burning pain in the affected area. The more affected areas you have, the more pain you endure.

Suddenly, your every thought is relative to how you move, or don't move, in order to avoid further injury. Suddenly, your skin doesn't move with you and it's all you can think about. Your once-supple skin has turned into a husk, much like a thin strip of raw beef, soft and supple in its raw form, that evolves into a hard strip of beef jerky when dried, or left out in the sun.

Your skin becomes a tomb, and there is no known cure. The affliction has been described by some as a living hell on earth. You eventually die a painful death, entombed within your own skin. One patient who died 11 months after a diagnosis of NSF / NFD was found during autopsy to exhibit hardening of tissues, and even some organs beneath the skin.

Patients have also found that many of the treatment options available in an effort to mitigate the symptoms of NSF and NFD are not covered by health insurance. Thus, patients endure pain in their pocketbooks, as well.

MRI and MRA have become commonplace in the detection of treatable abnormalities in soft tissue within the human body. However, the use of gadolinium-based contrasting agents is only considered safe for patients with healthy kidneys. NSF / NFD is almost always associated with patients suffering from some form of renal dysfunction.

If you have had an MRI or MRA recently, together with a gadolinium contrasting agent—and you suffer from kidney problems—you should have been screened. Gadolinium-based contrasting agents are limited by the FDA for those with kidney dysfunction, and you may run the risk of developing painful NSF / NFD.

If that happens, you can not only say goodbye to the comfortable skin you are in, you also may be facing some hefty healthcare and treatment bills your HMO may not cover. You may need some financial help, and you are urged to call an MRI health risk lawyer.