This single-center, prospective, randomized, double-blind phase IV study with parallel-group design was performed to test whether injection of a newly designed non-ionic monomeric radiographic contrast medium in the axillary artery influences the ipsilateral cutaneous microcirculation. Twenty patients with coronary heart disease or suspected coronary heart disease were investigated. Ten patients received iobitridol and 10 normal saline solution. The confirmatory target variable was the capillary erythrocyte velocity (v(RBC)). The v(RBC) was continuously recorded before and up to 3 min after the injection of iobitridol or normal saline solution and subsequently evaluated off-line. Thirty seconds after injection of 20 ml iobitridol, v(RBC) was reduced by 32% (P < 0.05). This was the strongest reduction, but v(RBC) was reduced at all time points measured up to 180 s following the injection (P < 0.05 up to 180 s). The overall reduction in v(RBC) was also statistically significant (P 0.0446). In contrast, there was a tendency toward an increase in v(RBC) following injection of 20 ml normal saline (P 0.0512). There was also a tendency toward a difference in the time course of changes in v(RBC) following injection of iobitridol compared to normal saline (P 0.0607). The decrease in v(RBC) following iobitridol injection (standardized difference (SD) according to Cohen, 0.67) can be regarded as biometrically weak, and the increase following normal saline injection (SD, 0.24) as very weak. The microcirculatory disturbance induced by iobitridol injection is less severe than that due to comparable high-viscosity contrast media.
Copyright 2000 Academic Press.