With the recent discontinuation of Ethiodol production by Savage Laboratories (Division of Nycomed US Inc, Melville, New York) the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) and the manufacturing source of the product, Guerbet LLC, Villepinte, France, have done outstanding work in bringing the replacement product Lipiodol Ultra Fluide (Guerbet) into the United States (Figure). Lipiodol, as the replacement,' has been touted as an equivalent product; however, savvy technologists, nurses, pharmacists, and other physicians are greatly concerned by a slight discrepancy in the product labels: the iodine content. One label lists 48% iodine, whereas the other lists 37%. The detail that is frequently missed with this concern is the reported units. One product reports a concentration in milligrams of iodine per milliliters of liquid (Lipiodol), whereas the other product reports a concentration in milligrams iodine per gram of liquid (Ethiodol). The two percentages are easily converted when the density (or specific gravity) of the product is known (1.28 g/mL) (1, 2). Specifically, Ethiodol lists the iodine content as 37% (weight/weight, w/w, or mg iodine per gram of total solution), whereas Lipiodol lists 48% (weight/volume, w/v, mg iodine per mL of total solution). One can multiply the concentration (w/w) of 37% mg iodine/g solution in Ethiodol by the density 1.28 g/mL, resulting in the concentration (w/v) 48% mg iodine/mL of solution for Lipiodol, allowing for rounding and significant figures:
展开▼
