Doctors are concerned for Louisiana cancer patients and others needing imaging diagnoses, amid a nationwide shortage of the contrast dye used in CT scans. The dye is made by GE Healthcare at a plant in Shanghai, China; now on lockdown due to another COVID virus surge there. LSU Health New Orleans radiology professor Bradley Spieler says doctors in Louisiana are forced to delay non-essential CT scans and concentrate on those that are more of an emergency.
“We’re also decreasing the amount of contrast we use so that people don’t have to wait for their scans, we are also thinking about alternative ways to get the answer to that image in question,” said Speiler.
The shortage is nationwide, but Louisiana leads the country in cancer and vascular disease; ailments for which CT scans are standard diagnostic tools. Dr. Spieler says the Chinese plant is currently at less than 60% production.
“Right now the company is scrambling to open up production at different facilities around the world,” said Spieler.
Speiler says radiologists and oncologists here are postponing CT scans deemed non-emergency and are even using smaller amounts of dye when doing scans.
“We are making concerted efforts as physicians, and radiologists and we are hoping that we will see more contrast available probably in the third or fourth quarter,” said Speiler.
That means it could be months before the shortage is resolved.
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