Gadolinium and Ferumoxytol MRI in Diagnosing Patients With Abnormalities in the Central Nervous System

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:

I. To test if prior gadolinium administration affects vascular imaging using ferumoxytol.

II. To test signal changes of T2*w multi-echo fast field echo (mFFE) scans before and after contrast agent injection.

SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:

I. To test if ferumoxytol affects gadolinium enhanced MRI. II. To test if steady state cerebral blood volume (CBV) maps are different at various magnetic field strengths.

EXPLORATORY OBJECTIVES:

I. To explore late ferumoxytol enhancement (optional MRI) hours to days after ferumoxytol administration in various brain pathologies.

II. To evaluate the effects of ferumoxytol on malignant and non-malignant lesions in head & neck, and liver lesions

OUTLINE: Patients are randomized into 1 of 2 groups.

GROUP I: Patients receive gadolinium intravenously (IV) and then ferumoxytol IV and undergo MRI over 60 minutes on day 1.

GROUP II: Patients receive ferumoxytol IV and then gadolinium IV and undergo MRI over 60 minutes on day 1.

Inclusion criteria

• Subjects must have one of the following:

• Neurological findings (i.e. headache, loss of consciousness, paresis, cranial neuropathy, seizures, etc.)
• Radiological abnormalities in the brain (neoplastic or non-neoplastic in nature)
• Neoplastic process elsewhere in the body that may affect the brain (i.e. possible metastasis, vascular compromise, treatment related changes, etc.)
• Subjects must be able to undergo MRI imaging without anesthesia
• Subjects must be at least 10 years of age
• All subjects, or their legal guardians, must sign a written informed consent and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) authorization in accordance with institutional guidelines
• Sexually active women of child-bearing potential must agree to use adequate contraception (hormonal or barrier method of birth control; surgical intervention i.e. tubal ligation or vasectomy; post-menopausal < 6 months; or abstinence) for at least two months after each cycle of the study; should a female become pregnant or suspect she is pregnant while participating in this study, she should inform her treating physician immediately

Exclusion criteria

• Subjects with clinically significant signs of uncal herniation, such as acute pupillary enlargement, rapidly developing motor changes (over hours), or rapidly decreasing level of consciousness, are not eligible
• Subjects with known allergic or hypersensitivity reactions to parenteral iron, parenteral dextran, parenteral iron-dextran, or parenteral iron-polysaccharide preparations (Ferumoxytol Investigator's Drug Brochure, 2009); subjects with significant drug or other allergies or autoimmune diseases may be enrolled at the investigator's discretion
• Subjects who are pregnant or lactating or who suspect they might be pregnant
• Subjects who have a contraindication for MRI: metal in their bodies (a cardiac pacemaker or other incompatible device), are severely agitated, or have an allergy to gadolinium containing contrast material
• Subjects with known iron overload (genetic hemochromatosis); in subjects with a family history of hemochromatosis, hemochromatosis must be ruled out prior to study entry with normal values of the following blood tests: transferrin saturation (TS) test and serum ferritin (SF) test; all associated costs will be paid by the study
• Subject who have received ferumoxytol within 3 weeks of study entry
• Subjects with three or more drug allergies from separate drug classes