I’ve worked with people who had gadolinium levels that were off the charts toxic. It’s commonly used in MRI brain scans as a contrast agent when identifying size, location and type of brain tumors. It greatly enhances the images.
Symptoms are generally experienced at an acute level shortly after having a contrast MRI and at a chronic level for years following their last contrast MRI.
If you have normal kidney function, it is gone from the body in about two hours. It is dangerous for people with decreased kidney function.
Chelating agents can assist in flushing it from the body.
Since it is a diagnostic tool often involving diagnosis of brain related tumors which are often inoperable, the question of it being iatrogenic is mute as the cancer tumor often is the real cause.
Therein lies the dilemma. Not all people react the same to new or unusual substances or procedures.
When signing "consent forms" it is impossible to answer the questions. "Are you allergic to XYZ"? is impossible to answer if one has never taken XYZ before...
I had gad injections at each of my hip studies. I knew there was a risk and researched it. The problem was that one of the first typical symptoms of gad poisoning is hip pain. That was a conundrum no one was able to get around when I asked “how will I know if I have this issue since I am already in so much pain that I need the hip study that requires the injection?”.
AFAIK gadolinium is the only FDA approved contrast for MRI. Fortunately I never had any issues that I am aware of, but I do appear to have fibromyalgia now (several years later). Also, to the best of my knowledge my liver function is normal.