[The consideration and performing of pretesting of contrast medium: surveying in Kanagawa]

The pretesting of contrast medium is world widely recognized to be an invaluable method to predict the adverse reactions. It was still required to perform on patients who shall have a contrast examination until recently in Japan. In May of 1990 the contrast drug package insert was reviewed and a statement of "there is no known method to predict the adverse reactions" was included. Although two reports suggested that the percentage of not performing the pretesting was increasing gradually since then, the clinical communications between institutes did not support the truth. This study investigated the problem by surveying the area in Kanagawa-ken neighboring to Tokyo and revealed that: 1. The percentage of non-performing the pretesting is high in radiologist and urologist (both are 40%) but low in other physicians (18%). 2. The risky performances of pretesting in the area without emergent equipment are occurring daily. 3. The percentage of the approval to abandon the pretesting increased significantly (from 46% to 89% with p < 0.01) after the accurate information on pretesting was given. 4. To prevent the tragedy caused by risky performance, actively contacting with and offering the information are necessary.