Radioactive iodine: treatment of thyroid pathologies

Radioactive iodine 131, widely used in medicine, is an isotope of a conventional chemical element. It has the ability to decay for 8 days, forming at the same time particles of a fast beta electron, gamma-ray and xenon.

Radioactive iodine is used to treat many diseases. Therapy with this drug allows to achieve recovery more than 80 percent of patients who have metastases in the lungs as a result of thyroid cancer. However, in 90 percent of cases within 10 years there are no relapses.

During the treatment, gelatin capsules containing radioactive iodine are taken orally. In addition, an aqueous solution of an isotope is used, which has no organoleptic properties (taste, color, odor). Element, accumulating in the cells of the thyroid gland, exposes the entire gland to gamma and beta radiation. This allows the destruction of tumor cells located in the body and beyond. For radioiodine therapy, compulsory admission to a specialized department is required.

The main goal of the treatment is suppression of thyroid activity, especially in excessively working places. After the course of taking the isotope, its accumulation takes place precisely in those areas that initiate the development of thyrotoxicosis. At the same time, radiation can destroy such foci. After the radiotherapy, the thyroid function is restored in patients .

Therapy with radioactive iodine diffuse and nodular toxic goiter is performed with the use of small drug activities. In this case, the patient at the time of therapy fully retained the functional activity of the thyroid gland. The effectiveness of treatment for toxic goiter depends entirely on the way the person is prepared for therapy and the prescribed doses of iodine.

Often used in conventional clinics technique, which allows calculating the dose of an isotope on the basis of carrying out cumulative tests, is not entirely effective, since it leads to the appointment of unreasonably low activity of the drug. As a result, many patients have relapse of thyrotoxicosis after treatment.

Optimum results of therapy are given by a technique consisting in the application of fixed isotope activities.

Radioactive iodine is the most effective treatment for thyroid cancer (follicular and papillary).

The use of radiotherapy is quite common. She is prescribed not only as a cancer patient. This technique is the main method of therapy of thyrotoxicosis, which is caused by increased activity of benign nodes. Most often, the isotope allows treating the thyroid disease without complications, since the doses of the drug introduced into the human body are small and the effect of radiation does not cause side effects or complications. The only contraindication to the use of radioactive iodine is pregnancy.

In patients who underwent isotope therapy, hypothyroidism may develop after a while. This deviation is easily controlled by the administration of thyroid hormones.