Extrinsic warming of low-osmolality iodinated contrast media to 37°C reduced the rate of allergic-like reaction.

Background: Although there is good evidence that warming of contrast media changes the bolus kinetics and injection pressure of iodinated contrast media, there has been little evidence that it affects clinical adverse event rates in a meaningful way. Objective: To determine whether the extrinsic warming of low-osmolality iodinated contrast media to 37°C reduced adverse reactions.
Methods: Data on adverse reactions were collected from two cohorts, one of which used contrast media at room temperature and the other in which contrast media were warmed to 37°C before administration. Adverse reactions, including allergic-like and physiological reactions, were reviewed. We compared the incidence rates of adverse reactions between the two cohorts by using the χ2 test.
Results: A total of 70,446 injections in cohort 1 and 203,873 injections in cohort 2 were included. Extrinsic warming reduced the rate of allergic-like reactions to iopromide 370, iopamidol 370, and iohexol 350 (0.32% in cohort 1 versus 0.21% in cohort 2, p = 0.003; 0.14% versus 0.10%, p = 0.046; and 0.32% versus 0.13%, p = .003, respectively). However, the physiological reaction rates could not be reduced (p = 0.057, p = 0.107, and p = 0.962, respectively). The extrinsic warming of iopromide 300 could not reduce adverse reaction rates (allergic-like reaction rates: 0.21% versus 0.16%, p = 0.407; physiological reaction rates: 0.17% versus 0.13%, p = 0.504).
Conclusion: Extrinsic warming to 37°C before intravenous administration was associated with a reduction in the rate of allergic-like reactions to iopromide 370, iopamidol 370, and iohexol 350.