Radioactive iodine 131, widely used in medicine, is an isotope of a common chemical element. It has the ability to decay within 8 days, while forming particles of a fast beta electron, a quantum of gamma radiation and xenon.
Radioactive iodine is used to treat many diseases. Therapy with this drug allows for the recovery of more than 80 percent of patients who have metastases in the lungs as a result of thyroid cancer. Moreover, in 90 percent of cases within 10 years no relapse is observed.
During treatment, gelatin capsules containing radioactive iodine are taken orally. In addition, an aqueous isotope solution is used, which does not have organoleptic properties (taste, color, smell). The element, accumulating in the cells of the thyroid gland, exposes the entire gland to gamma and beta radiation. This allows you to destroy tumor cells located in the body and beyond. For radioiodine therapy, mandatory hospitalization in a specialized department is required.
The main objective of the treatment is the suppression of thyroid activity, especially in excessively working places. After the course of taking the isotope, its accumulation occurs precisely in those areas that initiate the development of thyrotoxicosis. In this case, radiation allows you to destroy such foci.
After radiotherapy,
thyroid function is restored in patients
.
Therapy with radioactive iodine of diffuse and nodular toxic goiter is carried out using low activity of the drug. In this case, the patient by the time of therapy fully retains the functional activity of the thyroid gland. The effectiveness of treatment of toxic goiter completely depends on the method of preparing a person for therapy and the prescribed doses of iodine.
Often used in conventional clinics, a technique that allows you to calculate the dose of an isotope based on cumulative tests is not entirely effective, since it leads to the appointment of unreasonably low drug activities. As a result, many patients experience a relapse of thyrotoxicosis after treatment.
Optimal results of therapy are given by the technique consisting in the use 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 to cancer patients. This technique is the main method of treatment of thyrotoxicosis, which is caused by increased activity of benign nodes. Most often, an isotope allows you to treat thyroid disease without complications, since the doses of the drug introduced into the human body are small and exposure to radiation does not cause side effects or complications. The only contraindication to the use of radioactive iodine is pregnancy.
Patients who have undergone isotope therapy may develop hypothyroidism after some time. This deviation is easily controlled by taking thyroid hormones.