Clinical Efficacy of A Single Dose Radioiodine Therapy for Hyperthyroidism

Abstract

<p><strong>Objective</strong>: Radioiodine is a safe, cheap, and recognized permanent treatment option for patients with hyperthyroidism. Despite, the extensive use of radioiodine therapy in hyperthyroidism there is no consensus regarding the optimal dose of radioiodine. To evaluate the clinical efficacy and our clinical experience with the use of a single dose radioiodine therapy for hyperthyroidism in our institution.</p><p><strong>Methods:</strong> A total of 274 patients who received a single dose of radioactive iodine therapy for hyperthyroidism at our institution between 2007-2015 were retrospectively reviewed. Of these, 186 patients had Graves’ disease (GD), 73 patients had Plummer’s disease (PD), and 15 patients had a single toxic adenoma (STA). All patients received between 10-30mCi of oral radioiodine capsule. The efficacy of therapy was determined 3 months post-therapy using serum thyroid function test, weight and heart rate measurements. Therapy success refers to patients whose outcome was euthyroidism and hypothyroidism post-therapy and treatment failure where patients still manifested with persistent hyperthyroidism.</p><p><strong>Results:</strong> The efficacy of a single dose of radioiodine 3months post-therapy varies with the type of hyperthyroidism, 96% for Graves’s disease, 92% for Plummer’s disease and 100% in single toxic adenoma.</p><p><strong>Conclusion:</strong> Our study showed that a single dose of radioactive iodine therapy 3 months post-therapy is 96% efficient in all types of hyperthyroidism. However, we observed that patients at risk of therapy failure 3month post-therapy included, large thyroid gland prolong antithyroid drug usage and male gender.</p><p> </p>