[Contrast media in angiography: present and future]

The review proposed here is not an raised up work. Its purpose is to summarise a lot of data concerning clinical trials and some toxicity factors about uro-angiographic contrast material (CM) used in radiology. the accent has been put on physico-chemical properties, particularly hypertonicity, of iodinated CM in clinical use; the natural history of a CM molecule after intravascular injection explains the repartition of drugs, according to time, in a bicompartmental model (interstitial and vascular) with urinary excretion; the pharmacological basis of side effects are known from a lot of experimental studies; these works allow to dissociate general (or systemic) toxicity and particular side effects for targets organs (heart, nervous system, kidney). Finally the future of CM molecules, specifically for angiography, is evoked about some research ways.