do i have to have the contrast dye?

My physician ordered a CT of the abdomen/pelvis. Do I have to have the dye? Last time I felt terrible and almost threw up. Is it okay without the dye?

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,
For abdominal CT ,sometimes oral or intravenour contrasts are to be taken. CT contrast is used to make specific organs, blood vessels or tissue types "stand out" with more image contrast to better show the presence of disease or injury.It is common for the oral contrst to give a metallic taste,but to confirm whether you will be allergic to that dye,you can get allergy testing done. For that pls consult an allergy specialist and get skin ***** tests and blood tests for allergy done.

Also if you are having the symptoms after oral contrast ,you can opt for CT without dye also,but it depends on the pathology that your radiologist is looking for.In some pathologies presence of a dye is essential.You will have to talk to your radiologist about it.

Hope it helps.Take care and pls do keep me posted.