Radioactive Iodine

• Effect: damages the thyroid cells that make thyroid hormone. This is the most common treatment of hyperthyroidism in the USA.
  
  
• Indications:
  
  • Grave's disease
    
    
  • Toxic multinodular goiter
    
    
• Contraindications:
  
  • During pregnancy, radioactive iodine may destroy fetal thyroid tissue.
    
    
  • Breastfeeding women may pass radioactive iodine through breast milk.
    
    
  • A six month waiting period before pregnancy is suggested after therapy.
  
  
  
• Risks:
  
  
  • Most treated patients become hypothyroid and require lifelong thyroid hormone replacement therapy
    
    
  • Elderly and cardiac patients have increased risk of ¹³¹I-(radioactive iodine)-induced thyroiditis
    
    

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Hyperthyroidism - Symptoms Experienced

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