Knowledge and attitudes toward the safe use of intravascular contrast media in medical imaging among clinicians: A cross-sectional study

Background: Safe use of intravascular (IV) contrast media in medical imaging is important. We aimed to assess the clinicians’ knowledge and attitudes toward safe use of IV contrast media in medical imaging regardless of their specialty and experience. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire in selected hospitals at Qassim, Saudi Arabia. The participants were exposed to 30 items to assess their knowledge and attitudes toward safe use of contrast media. The mean percentage scores were correlated with the specialty, level of training, experience, and frequency of contrast study requisition. Results: A total of 227 participants enrolled in the study. Internal medicine and pediatric were the highest specialties among participants (26.4%). Nearly half of participants (40.5%) had more than 10 years of experience in their field. Majority of the participants had insufficient knowledge (85.9%) and negative attitudes (80.2%) toward safe use of contrast media. The results indicate some variations in level of knowledge in between different specialties in favor of internal medicine (p = 0.041), and statistically significant association between the participants’ attitudes and their perception of level of knowledge (p = 0.004). Finally, there is a statistically significant relation between knowledge and attitudes (p< 0.01) with correlation coefficient (0.331) that consider as low. Conclusions: The study confirms overall unsatisfactory knowledge and negative attitudes toward safe use of IV contrast media among clinicians. Such findings might interfere with patient’s safety or postponing necessary study. Improving knowledge on contrast media safety is highly recommended through curricular or non-curricular activities.