[Side effects of metrizamide (Amipaque) cervical myelography (author's transl)]

Abstract

Thirty-four patients were submitted to the conventional cervical myelography by administration of metrizamide (Amipaque) through three routes (lumbar 23, suboccipital 6, C1-C2 lateral 5). After the injection of metrizamide (4-11 ml, 170-250 mgI/ml), all procedures of the cervical myelography were done as soon as possible within 9 minutes. The adverse reactions of Amipaque were observed in 29 cases (85%) out of 34 cases initially 1 hour after cervical myelography and disappeared completely in an average of 16 hours. The total number of the side effects was 140 incidences such as meningeal irritation (headache 18, nausea 17, vomiting 17), cerebellar signs (dizziness 11, dysarthria 8, tremor 5, bradylalia 2, dysmetria 2, tipsy feeling 2, dysdiadochokinesis 1), autonomic signs (flushing 7, pale face 4, fever 4, sweating 2, hiccup 2, fatigability 2, micturition disturbance 1), sensory signs (exacerbation of numbness 6, perioral numbness 3, back pain 1, chest pain 1), motor signs (focal muscle spasm 5, exacerbation of paresis 4, areflexia 1), psychiatric signs (dysphasia 3, disturbance of consciousness 2, euphoria 1, persecutory delusion 1) and muddiness 7. We observed that waxing and waning of side effects correlated tightly with transient cortical penetration of dye in CT and cortical dysfunction mainly slowing of the background activity and slow wave burst in EEG. According to high frequency of side effects in our study, we suggest that a greater incidence of side effects may result when high concentration of Amipaque comes in contact with the cerebral cortex by using an inadequate fluoroscopic table which has only fixed one plane image and rough positioning control. Slow absorption into blood stream may affect appearance and maintenance of side effects. In order to decrease side effects after Amipaque cervical myelography, we propose that we should introduce a mobile rotating chair coupled with high power image and chose C1-C2 lateral route using 1500-1700mgI of Amipaque.