Study Status: Recruiting
Recruit Status: Recruiting
Study Type: Interventional
Official Title: The Use of Ferumoxytol (Feraheme) for Whole Body Magnetic Resonance Angiography in Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia
Brief Summary:
Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is performed with contrast agents to highlight the blood vessels and allow interpretation and diagnosis of blood vessel abnormalities. HHT (Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia) is a disease of blood vessels, and can suffer fatal bleeding if abnormal blood vessels are not detected and treated early. Patients with HHT also require many imaging studies through their lifetimes for surveillance of blood vessels. Many HHT patients also have co-existing iron deficiency anemia from bleeding in their nose and gastrointestinal tract, and receive daily iron therapy.
Ferumoxytol is an alternative MR contrast agent, which is FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approved for the treatment of iron deficiency anemia. In addition, it is not associated with the risks to the kidneys of the other agents. The use of ferumoxytol for MR imaging may benefit the patients who do not currently receive imaging due to the contraindications of the conventional contrast agents. It avoids the use of ionizing radiation. Also, the conventional contrast agents are associated with risks. Iodinated contrast in CT is associated with significant risks of kidney damage. Another imaging technique, MR, uses gadolinium based contrast agents. Gadolinium, if used in patients with pre existing kidney dysfunction (defined as GFR < 30ml/min) is associated with the development of another devastating disease called nephrogenic systemic fibrosis. As HHT patients will require repeated scans throughout their lifetimes, this study will provide them a safer alternative.
Ten patients from the HHT clinic in whom the use of ferumoxytol as an MR agent is clinically indicated will be invited to participate in this study, which will determine if MR with ferumoxytol is able to detect and characterize vascular malformations in HHT.