Prevention of Contrast Induced Nephropathy With Sodium Bicarbonate

This will be a randomized controlled trial closely following the original protocol in the previous study published in JAMA 2004 by Merten et al. Patients will be randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups. Treatment group A will receive 1cc/kg/hour of 0.9% normal saline at least 2 hours prior to study beginning and will be continued during and for 6 hours post contrast. Treatment group B will receive 3cc/kg of sodium bicarbonate solution for one hour prior to procedure then drip rate will be decreased to 1cc/kg/hour during and for 6 hours post procedure. The sodium bicarbonate solution will be made by adding 3 amps of bicarbonate to 1L of D5W. Patients in both treatment arms weighing \>110kg the initial fluid bolus and drip will be limited to those patients weighing 110kg. In both treatment arms, diuretics will be held before and after contrast administration on the day of the study. BMP will be checked the day of, 24 and 48 hours post contrast administration. The greatest change in all readings will be used for treatment comparisons. Contrast induced nephropathy will be defined as a change in serum creatinine of more than 25% from baseline and/or 0.5mg/dL. Urinary pH will also be measured on first spontaneous void following bolus. Vital signs including blood pressure and oxygen saturation will be documented every 4 hours to monitor patients closely for signs and symptoms of volume overload