"Review of the literature shows no evidence to suggest that oral ingestion by an infant of the tiny amount of gadolinium contrast medium excreted into breast milk would cause toxic effects. We believe, therefore, that the available data suggest that it is safe for the mother and infant to continue breast-feeding after receiving such an agent.

This is not a chip we designed entirely from scratch. Rather, it’s the scaled version of an already proven AI accelerator built into our Telum chip. The 32 cores in the IBM AIU closely resemble the AI core embedded in the Telum chip that powers our latest IBM’s z16 system. (Telum uses transistors that are 7 nm in size while our AIU will feature faster, even smaller 5 nm transistors.)

When an iodine-based contrast material is injected into your bloodstream, you may have a warm, flushed sensation and a metallic taste in your mouth that lasts for a few minutes.

There is evidence that tiny traces of gadolinium may be retained in different organs of the body, including the brain, after contrast-enhanced MRI. While there are no known negative effects from this, your doctor may take gadolinium retention into account when selecting a contrast agent. There are many different gadolinium-based contrast agents available, each with its own safety profile. Decisions on which material to use may be affected by the part of the body being imaged, the cost of the material and other factors. These decisions are especially important in patients likely to undergo multiple MRI scans with gadolinium-based contrast material, such as pediatric patients, cancer patients and people with multiple sclerosis.

Barium-sulfate contrast materials are expelled from the body with feces. You can expect bowel movements to be white for a few days. Some patients may experience changes in their normal bowel movement patterns for the first 12 to 24 hours.

If you swallow the contrast material, you may find the taste mildly unpleasant; however, most patients can easily tolerate it.

When introduced into the body prior to an imaging exam, contrast materials make certain structures or tissues in the body appear different on the images than they would if no contrast material had been administered. Contrast materials help distinguish or "contrast" selected areas of the body from surrounding tissue. This helps physicians diagnose medical conditions by improving the visibility of specific organs, blood vessels, or tissues.

For MR imaging, gadolinium contrast material administration is usually avoided due to unknown risk to the baby. However, it may be used when critical information can only be obtained with the use of the gadolinium-based contrast agent.

Prior to any imaging exam, women should always inform their physician or technologist if there is any possibility that they are pregnant. Many imaging tests and contrast material administrations are avoided during pregnancy to minimize risk to the baby.

We launched the AI Hardware Center in 2019 to fill this void, with the mission to improve AI hardware efficiency by 2.5 times each year. By 2029, our goal is train and run AI models one thousand times faster than we could three years ago.

If the mother remains concerned about any potential ill effects, she should be given the opportunity to make an informed decision as to whether to continue or temporarily abstain from breast-feeding after receiving a gadolinium contrast medium. If the mother so desires, she may abstain from breast-feeding for 24 hours with active expression and discarding of breast milk from both breasts during that period. In anticipation of this, she may wish to use a breast pump to obtain milk before the contrast study to feed the infant during the 24-hour period following the examination."

Barium-sulfate is the most common contrast material taken by mouth, or orally. It is also used rectally and is available in several forms, including:

A decade ago, modern AI was born. A team of academic researchers showed that with millions of photos and days of brute force computation, a deep learning model could be trained to identify objects and animals in entirely new images. Today, deep learning has evolved from classifying pictures of cats and dogs to translating languages, detecting tumors in medical scans, and performing thousands of other time-saving tasks.

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A very small percentage of patients may develop a delayed reaction with a rash which can occur hours to days after an imaging exam with an iodine-based contrast material. Most are mild, but severe rashes may require medication after discussion with your physician

This website does not provide cost information. The costs for specific medical imaging tests, treatments and procedures may vary by geographic region. Discuss the fees associated with your prescribed procedure with your doctor, the medical facility staff and/or your insurance provider to get a better understanding of the possible charges you will incur.

Contrast materials are safe drugs; adverse reactions ranging from mild to severe do occur, but severe reactions are very uncommon. While serious allergic or other reactions to contrast materials are rare, radiology departments are well-equipped to deal with them.

Contrast materials are not dyes that permanently discolor internal organs. They are substances that temporarily change the way x-rays or other imaging tools interact with the body. The materials discussed in this article do not produce radiation.

Manufacturers of intravenous contrast provide special instructions for mothers who are breast feeding. They advise that mothers should not breast-feed their babies for 24 to 48 hours after contrast medium is given. However, both the American College of Radiology (ACR) and the European Society of Urogenital Radiology note that the available data suggest it is safe to continue breast-feeding after receiving intravenous contrast. The Manual on Contrast Media from the ACR states:

Before arriving for your exam, you will be given specific instructions on how to prepare for the exam. Because contrast materials carry a slight risk of causing an allergic reaction or adverse reaction, you should tell your doctor about any of the following conditions. These conditions could affect the instructions you are given.

It’s our first complete system-on-chip designed to run and train deep learning models faster and more efficiently than a general-purpose CPU.

There’s just one problem. We’re running out of computing power. AI models are growing exponentially, but the hardware to train these behemoths and run them on servers in the cloud or on edge devices like smartphones and sensors hasn’t advanced as quickly. That’s why the IBM Research AI Hardware Center decided to create a specialized computer chip for AI. We’re calling it an Artificial Intelligence Unit, or AIU.

Leaner bit formats also reduce another drag on speed: moving data to and from memory. Our AIU uses a range of smaller bit formats, including both floating point and integer representations, to make running an AI model far less memory intensive. We leverage key IBM breakthroughs from the last five years to find the best tradeoff between speed and accuracy.

The IBM AIU is what’s known as an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). It’s designed for deep learning and can be programmed to run any type of deep-learning task, whether that’s processing spoken language or words and images on a screen. Our complete system-on-chip features 32 processing cores and contains 23 billion transistors — roughly the same number packed into our z16 chip. The IBM AIU is also designed to be as easy-to-use as a graphics card. It can be plugged into any computer or server with a PCIe slot.

The contrast material used in MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) called gadolinium is less likely to produce an allergic reaction than the iodine-based materials used for x-rays and CT scanning. Very rarely, patients are allergic to gadolinium-based contrast materials and experience hives and itchy eyes. Reactions are usually mild and easily controlled by medication. Severe reactions are rare.

When the gadolinium is injected, it is normal to feel coolness at the site of injection, usually the arm for a minute or two.

One, embrace lower precision. An AI chip doesn’t have to be as ultra-precise as a CPU. We’re not calculating trajectories for landing a spacecraft on the moon or estimating the number of hairs on a cat. We’re making predictions and decisions that don’t require anything close to that granular resolution.

With a technique pioneered by IBM called approximate computing, we can drop from 32-bit floating point arithmetic to bit-formats holding a quarter as much information. This simplified format dramatically cuts the amount of number crunching needed to train and run an AI model, without sacrificing accuracy.

Deploying AI to classify cats and dogs in photos is a fun academic exercise. But it won’t solve the pressing problems we face today. For AI to tackle the complexities of the real world — things like predicting the next Hurricane Ian, or whether we’re heading into a recession — we need enterprise-quality, industrial-scale hardware. Our AIU takes us one step closer. We hope to soon share news about its release.

When a physician needs to understand what is happening inside our bodies, they often request that a patient undergo an imaging exam. Imaging exams such as x-rays, ultrasound, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance (MRI), and fluoroscopy are selected based on their ability to show specific information about the structures within the body. Contrast materials, also known as contrast agents or contrast media, are used to improve the diagnostic value of those imaging exams.

Two, an AI chip should be laid out to streamline AI workflows. Because most AI calculations involve matrix and vector multiplication, our chip architecture features a simpler layout than a multi-purpose CPU. The IBM AIU has also been designed to send data directly from one compute engine to the next, creating enormous energy savings.

A car with a gasoline engine might be able to run on diesel but if maximizing speed and efficiency is the objective, you need the right fuel. The same principle applies to AI. For the last decade, we’ve run deep learning models on CPUs and GPUs — graphics processors designed to render images for video games — when what we really needed was an all-purpose chip optimized for the types of matrix and vector multiplication operations used for deep learning. At IBM, we’ve spent the last five years figuring out how to design a chip customized for the statistics of modern AI.

It is a good idea to increase your fluid intake after an imaging exam involving an iodine-based contrast material to help remove the contrast material from your body.

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If your contrast material is given by enema, you can expect to experience a sense of abdominal fullness and an increasing need to expel the liquid. The mild discomfort will not last long.

When iodine-based and barium-sulfate contrast materials are present in a specific area of the body, they block or limit the ability of x-rays to pass through. As a result, blood vessels, organs and other body tissue that temporarily contain the iodine-based or barium compounds change their appearance on x-ray or CT images.

Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF), a thickening of the skin, organs, and other tissues, is a rare complication in patients with kidney disease that undergo an MR with contrast material. Gadolinium-based contrast material may be withheld in some patients with severe kidney disease.

If a barium-sulfate contrast material (given orally or rectally) will be used during your exam, you may be asked not to eat for a few hours before your exam begins. If the contrast material will be given rectally, you may also be asked to cleanse your colon with a special diet and medication (possibly including an enema) before your exam.

It is a good idea to increase your fluid intake after an imaging exam involving a barium-based contrast material to help remove the contrast material from your body.

For CT imaging, iodinated contrast agents are not known to pose any significant risk to the mom or baby. If you have concerns, you can speak to the radiologist to understand the potential risks and benefits of the contrast-enhanced scan.

The AI cores built into Telum, and now, our first specialized AI chip, are the product of the AI Hardware Center’s aggressive roadmap to grow IBM’s AI-computing firepower. Because of the time and expense involved in training and running deep-learning models, we’ve barely scratched the surface of what AI can deliver, especially for enterprise.

Following an imaging exam with contrast material, the material is absorbed by the body or eliminated through urine or bowel movements.

Patients with impaired kidney (renal) function should be given special consideration before receiving iodine-based contrast materials by vein or artery. While many contrast agents are safe to give in patients with kidney disease, if you have severe kidney disease and very poor kidney function you may be at increased risk of worsening kidney function when getting iodinated contrast agents. The benefits of having a contrast enhanced scan often out-weigh the risks in ensuring the radiologist can properly diagnose your medical conditions.

Barium-sulfate contrast materials that are administered by enema (rectally) are used to enhance standard x-ray, fluoroscopy, and CT images of the lower gastrointestinal (GI) tract (colon and rectum). In some situations, iodine-based contrast materials are substituted for barium-sulfate contrast materials for rectal administration.

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You should tell your doctor if these mild side effects of barium-sulfate contrast materials become severe or do not go away:

Microbubble contrast materials can be targeted or untargeted. Untargeted contrast-enhanced ultrasound —the more common method— helps diagnose certain diseases by providing evaluation of blood flow in the heart and other organs. In targeted contrast-enhanced ultrasound, specific molecules are bound to the surface of the microbubbles. After injection, the microbubbles attach to specific targeted tissue sites, causing an increase in the ultrasound signal at the sites.

The workhorse of traditional computing — standard chips known as CPUs, or central processing units — were designed before the revolution in deep learning, a form of machine learning that makes predictions based on statistical patterns in big data sets. The flexibility and high precision of CPUs are well suited for general-purpose software applications. But those winning qualities put them at a disadvantage when it comes to training and running deep learning models which require massively parallel AI operations.

Barium-sulfate contrast materials that are swallowed or administered by mouth (orally) are used to enhance standard x-ray, fluoroscopy, and CT images of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, including:

Iodine-based contrast materials injected into a vein (intravenously) are used to enhance x-ray (including fluoroscopic images) and CT images. Iodine based contrast materials are also commonly injected in the arteries during angiogram procedures. Gadolinium injected into a vein (intravenously) is used to enhance MR images. Typically, these are used to enhance:

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Contrast materials can have a chemical structure that includes iodine, a naturally occurring chemical element. These contrast materials can be injected into veins or arteries, within the disks or the fluid spaces of the spine, and into other body cavities.

In some situations, iodine-based contrast materials are substituted for barium-sulfate contrast materials for oral administration.

It’s our first complete system-on-chip designed to run and train deep learning models faster and more efficiently than a general-purpose CPU.

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If you have not been sedated, no recovery period is necessary. You may resume your usual activities and normal diet immediately after the exam. Increased fluid intake will help eliminate the contrast material from your body.

You should tell your doctor if these mild or moderate side effects of iodine-based contrast materials become severe or do not go away:

Microbubble contrast materials are tiny bubbles of an injectable gas held in a supporting shell. They are extremely small—smaller than a red blood cell—and have a high degree of "echogenicity", or ability to reflect ultrasound waves. Structures with higher echogenicity will appear brighter on ultrasound. Once the microbubbles are in the bloodstream, ultrasound technology is able capture differences in echogenicity between the gas in the microbubbles and the surrounding tissues of the body, producing an ultrasound image with increased contrast. The microbubbles dissolve, usually within 10 to 15 minutes, and the gas within them is removed from the body through exhalation. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound with microbubbles is a convenient, relatively inexpensive way to improve visualization of blood flow, and it does not use radiation. It is a useful option for patients with kidney failure or those with allergies to contrast agents used for MR and/or CT imaging.