One alternative to mammography, breast MRI or contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), has shown substantial progress in the detection of breast cancer.

In the screening for breast cancer for high-risk women, sensitivity of MRI ranges from 83 to 94% while specificity (the confidence that a lesion is cancerous and not a false positive) ranges from 75.2% to 100%.

[3] The systemic disease nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF), caused by exposure to gadolinium in MRI contrast agents, resembles scleromyxedema and to some extent scleroderma.

After several years of controversy during which up to 100 Danish patients have been gadolinium poisoned (and some died) after use of the contrast agent Omniscan, the Norwegian medical company Nycomed admitted that they were aware of some dangers of using gadolinium-based agents for their product.

[4] At present, NSF has been linked to the use of four gadolinium-containing MRI contrast agents.