Safety and efficacy of Mangafodipir trisodium in patients with liver lesions and cirrhosis

Mangafodipir trisodium (Mn-DPDP, Teslascan) is a well-tolerated liver contrast agent. Although the enhancement characteristics of the cirrhotic liver after Mangafodipir trisodium administration have been studied, at present there is no published data on the impact that cirrhosis might have on the safety and efficacy profiles of this agent. Our objective is to evaluate by means of a retrospective comparison the safety and efficacy of Mangafodipir trisodium in patients with underlying cirrhosis who were examined for suspicion of focal liver lesions. A total of 923 patients received Mangafodipir trisodium (5 micromol/kg) in 11 prospective randomized European clinical trials. Adverse events and discomfort were recorded and graded in all patients. The efficacy analyses were performed on the subsets consisting of 617 patients with independent lesion counts (detection), and on the subset with 399 patients with independent and onsite final lesion diagnosis (characterization). Of the 399 patients, 149 had histologic confirmation. One hundred eighty of 923 patients (19.5%) had cirrhosis. There were no main differences between cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic patients. Adverse events were observed in 64 patients (6.9%), 6.7% in the cirrhotic group and 7.0% in the non-cirrhotic group, a non-significant difference. Adverse events in most patients were mild or moderate. The presence and intensity of the events did not differ between groups. Discomfort was recorded in 79 patients (8.6%), equally distributed in cirrhotic (6.1%) and non-cirrhotic (9.2%) patients. Regarding lesion count, significantly more lesions were found in the post- than in the precontrast images in both the cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic groups ( p<0.0001). This increase was not influenced by the presence of liver cirrhosis ( p=0.94). Lesion characterization was significantly improved in cirrhotic patients after administration of Mangafodipir trisodium ( p=0.002) but not in non-cirrhotic patients ( p=0.13). Mangafodipir trisodium is a safe and well-tolerated useful contrast agent in patients with cirrhosis.