Radioisotopes Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Radioisotopes, including details on radioimmunotherapy, radionuclides, procedures, hazards.

Influence of short-term interruption of antithyroid drugs on the outcome of radioiodine therapy of Graves' disease: results of a prospective study.

Eschmann SM, Thelen MH, Dittmann H, Bares R

University of Tuebingen, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Germany. susanne-martina.eschmann@med.uni-tuebingen.de

AIM: The factors influencing success of treating Graves' disease with radioiodine ( (131)I) are discussed controversially. This study analyses prospectively the influence of discontinuing antithyroid drugs (ATD) immediately prior to treatment with radioiodine on the therapeutic outcome. METHODS: We studied 141 patients with Graves' disease. In 73 of them (group A) treatment was performed under medication with ATD, in 68 patients (group B) ATD were discontinued for 3 - 7 days starting at the time of therapy. We performed a statistical analysis of the influence of ATD and other factors potentially influencing treatment results. RESULTS: In group A 49/73 patients were treated successfully (67 %) vs. 58/68 (85 %) in group B (p < 0.01). Characteristic changes in the kinetics of radioiodine were observed: after discontinuing ATD specific uptake was higher (2.0 %/ml in group A vs. 2.6 %/ml in group B, p = 0.004), and the effective half life was longer (5.1 +/- 1.3 d in group A vs. 5.5 +/- 1.1 d in group B, p = 0.076) resulting in a significantly higher radiation dose in group B (200 +/- 61 Gy in group A vs. 236 +/- 72 Gy in group B, p = 0.002). CONCLUSION: We conclude that short-term interruption of ATD improves the success rate of treating Graves' disease with radioiodine significantly.

Published 28 June 2006 in Exp Clin Endocrinol Diabetes, 114(5): 222-6.
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