Causes
Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis is iatrogenic by nature. This means that it results from certain diagnostic and therapeutic procedures carried out on a patient. The causes of the disease have yet to be completely unraveled, though applying a contrast material that contains gadolinium has been tagged as a triggering effect in people with advanced kidney disease. While there are no recorded cases of the disease in people with normal kidneys, nephrogenic systemic fibrosis has been diagnosed in persons who were not exposed to gadolinium in an MRI test. However, such people must have had contact with gadolinium via other means, for example, surgery.
Gadolinium has been in use since the 1980s until it was found that its involvement in MRI tests for people with kidney disease was harmful to the patient. This recognition alone has drastically reduced the number of cases of the disease since 2009.
Some conditions appear to increase the incidence of the disease in the presence of gadolinium for people with advanced kidney disease. Such conditions include the use of high doses of erythropoietin for the treatment of anemia. (Erythropoietin is a hormone that increases the production of red blood cells). A vascular surgery done recently, or a blood-clotting disorder increases the tendency for nephrogenic systemic fibrosis when a gadolinium-containing contrast is in place. [2]
