Abstract:
Objective To analyze the radioactive 131I dose of treatment in pediatric patients with Graves hyperthyroidism.
Method Fifty one pediatric patients with hyperthyroidism and 150 adult patients with hyperthyroidism were retrospectively analyzed, who were contraindicated or refractory for medical therapy and treated with 131I in this study. All pediatric and adult patients treated with 131I were divided into five groups according to the thyroid weight. Group1:≤30 g, Group2:31~50 g, Group3:51~70 g, Group4:71~90 g and Group5: > 90 g. The pediatric patients were comparable to the adult patients in data distribution of the thyroid weight. All pediatric patients who were either contraindicated or refractory to antithyroid drugs treatment and adult patients received radioactive 131I treatment with a dose of(2.41±0.71), (3.27±0.97)MBq/g thyroid tissue respectively. The total administrated doses of 131I in all pediatric and adult patients were(224.36±130.10)MBq and(354.88±308.04)MBq respectively. All the pediatric and adult patients treated with 131I were followed-up(median 32 months, range 24 to 83 months; median 23 months, range 15 to 62 months, respectively). The treatment results were divided into euthyroid, hyperthyroidism, late-onset hypothyroidism and relapsed.
Results The results by followed-up found that 16 and 65 patients became euthyroid, 22 and 56 patients developed late-onset hypothyroidism, 12 and 25 patients still had hyperthyroidism, 1 and 4 patients relapsed after radioiodine therapy in pediatric group and adult group who were treated with 131I, respectively. The total efficiency was 98% and 97.3%, respectively. There were no statistical significance of treatment effect between pediatric and adult patients(χ2=0.058, P > 0.05).
Conclusion When the radioactive 131I dose was administrated in pediatric patients with hyperthyroidism, who were contraindicated or refractory for medical therapy, it is recommended that the ratios of total 131I dose administrated and that based on per gram thyroid tissue between pediatric and adult patients were 63% and 74%, respectively.