Hemodynamic and Electrocardiographic Effects of Ioversol During Cardiac Angiography

We studied the hemodynamic and electrocardiographic responses to left ventriculography and coronary arteriography with three angiographic contrast agents. Two were nonionic agents (ioversol 32% iodine, 60 patients, and iopamidol 37% iodine, 30 patients). The third was a conventional ionic agent (diatrizoate 37% iodine, 30 patients). Cardiovascular hemodynamics and the electrocardiogram were recorded for 5 minutes after left ventricular injection and for 2 minutes after coronary injections. Following left ventriculography, diatrizoate caused a greater increase in cardiac output, left ventricular end diastolic pressure, and corrected QT interval while causing a greater decrease in arterial pressure than did either ioversol or iopamidol, which were indistinguishable from each other. Following left coronary arteriography, diatrizoate caused a significant decrease in heart rate, prolongation of the corrected QT interval, and increase in T wave amplitude. In contrast, neither ioversol nor iopamidol caused significant changes in any electrocardiographic parameters. Adverse reactions were more common with diatrizoate than with either ioversol or iopamidol. There were no recognizable differences in angiographic image quality among the three agents. We conclude that the angiographic performance of ioversol is equivalent to that of iopamidol and that both cause less hemodynamic and electrocardiographic disturbance than diatrizoate.