The effectiveness of radioactive iodine theraphy on thyrotoxicosis

Radioactive iodine has been widely used to treat hyperthyroid since past 60 years. Hyperthyroid is a medical condition that occur where an overactive thyroid cause the thyroid gland to produce too much of thyroid hormone which are thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and thyroxine (T4). In this study, an attempt has been made to study the effectiveness of radioactive iodine (RAI) on thyrotoxicosis. This study is focused on the changes of thyroid hormone in patients that took radioactive iodine as their treatment for thyrotoxicosis. Our study was done at Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM), Kubang Kerian, Kota Bharu which also own Radiopharmacy department itself. Our study subject was the previous patient who came to the Radiopharmacy department to receive RAI treatment within the years of 2007 to 2016. 100 patients were chosen randomly from the patient attendance form. From the data, the effectiveness of the RAI treatment is obtained. The TSH and T4 level before and after the treatment were taken to compare the level of both hormone. The TSH level before treatment is below the normal range (0.3 mlU/L - 4.2 mlU/L), while level of T4 is higher than normal range (12 pmol//L - 22 pmol/L) which called hyperthyroidism. After the treatment, the level of both hormones are either within the normal range, hypothyroid or hyperthyroid. This study also collected the number of relapsed cases across races, ages and gender. For race, Malay had the highest number of relapsed than Chinese. Female patients recorded the most number of patient relapsed compared to the male patients. From the result of geriatric patients, age between 51 years old to 60 years old make the highest mark in the number of relapsed case. The sufficient dose for RAI therapy recorded that high dose can reduce the number of relapsed case. From the result, dose of 15mCi is better and effective than lOmCi. Radioactive iodine is used to treat hyperthyroid and improve the survival rates of patients for a better quality life and it is proven to be effective.