Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current
    • Ahead of print
    • Past Issues
    • JNM Supplement
    • SNMMI Annual Meeting Abstracts
    • Continuing Education
    • JNM Podcasts
  • Subscriptions
    • Subscribers
    • Institutional and Non-member
    • Rates
    • Journal Claims
    • Corporate & Special Sales
  • Authors
    • Submit to JNM
    • Information for Authors
    • Assignment of Copyright
    • AQARA requirements
  • Info
    • Reviewers
    • Permissions
    • Advertisers
  • About
    • About Us
    • Editorial Board
    • Contact Information
  • More
    • Alerts
    • Feedback
    • Help
    • SNMMI Journals
  • SNMMI
    • JNM
    • JNMT
    • SNMMI Journals
    • SNMMI

User menu

  • Subscribe
  • My alerts
  • Log in
  • Log out
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Journal of Nuclear Medicine
  • SNMMI
    • JNM
    • JNMT
    • SNMMI Journals
    • SNMMI
  • Subscribe
  • My alerts
  • Log in
  • Log out
  • My Cart
Journal of Nuclear Medicine

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current
    • Ahead of print
    • Past Issues
    • JNM Supplement
    • SNMMI Annual Meeting Abstracts
    • Continuing Education
    • JNM Podcasts
  • Subscriptions
    • Subscribers
    • Institutional and Non-member
    • Rates
    • Journal Claims
    • Corporate & Special Sales
  • Authors
    • Submit to JNM
    • Information for Authors
    • Assignment of Copyright
    • AQARA requirements
  • Info
    • Reviewers
    • Permissions
    • Advertisers
  • About
    • About Us
    • Editorial Board
    • Contact Information
  • More
    • Alerts
    • Feedback
    • Help
    • SNMMI Journals
  • View or Listen to JNM Podcast
  • Visit JNM on Facebook
  • Join JNM on LinkedIn
  • Follow JNM on Twitter
  • Subscribe to our RSS feeds
OtherLetters to the Editor

Thyroid Stunning Revisited

Kevin C. Allman
Journal of Nuclear Medicine July 2003, 44 (7) 1194;
Kevin C. Allman
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

TO THE EDITOR:

I read with interest the careful experimental study by Postgård et al. (1) and the accompanying editorial (2) in the Journal. This in vitro study suggested that thyroid stunning is a real phenomenon and is due to a decrease in iodide transport caused by the effects of radiation on thyroid cell iodine transport and not to cell death.

Although the investigators attempted to simulate the situation occurring in a thyroid cancer patient with residual functioning thyroid tissue who has been withdrawn from thyroid hormone replacement, there remain 2 issues:

First, in a patient who is to receive an imaging dose of 131I for cancer surveillance, functioning thyroid cells are exposed to a progressively rising thyroid-stimulating hormone level over a period of (typically) 10–14 d before administration of radiation. The investigators used a fixed pretreatment of 1 mU/mL in the experiment. Additionally, the protocol involved administration of methimazole, which would not occur in the patient setting.

Second, based on measurements of total DNA in the preparation, the authors concluded that stunning was due to decreased iodide transport and not to cell death from radiation. However, they used a nonproliferating cell culture model. Cells are most sensitive to radiation when they are dividing. This raises the possibility that the experiment may have been biased against finding cell death from radiation as a potential cause for stunning.

REFERENCES

  1. ↵
    Postgård P, Himmelman J, Lindencrona U, et al. Stunning of iodide transport by 131I irradiation in cultured thyroid epithelial cells. J Nucl Med. 2002;43:828–834.
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
  2. ↵
    Brenner W. Is thyroid stunning a real phenomenon or just fiction? J Nucl Med. 2002;43:835–836.
    OpenUrlFREE Full Text
PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

Journal of Nuclear Medicine
Vol. 44, Issue 7
July 1, 2003
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Thyroid Stunning Revisited
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Journal of Nuclear Medicine
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Journal of Nuclear Medicine web site.
Citation Tools
Thyroid Stunning Revisited
Kevin C. Allman
Journal of Nuclear Medicine Jul 2003, 44 (7) 1194;

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Share
Thyroid Stunning Revisited
Kevin C. Allman
Journal of Nuclear Medicine Jul 2003, 44 (7) 1194;
Twitter logo Facebook logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One
Bookmark this article

Jump to section

  • Article
    • REFERENCES
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • Business Model Beats Science and Logic: Dosimetry and Paucity of Its Use
  • Determining PSMA-617 Mass and Molar Activity in Pluvicto Doses
  • The Value of Functional PET in Quantifying Neurotransmitter Dynamics
Show more Letters to the Editor

Similar Articles

SNMMI

© 2025 SNMMI

Powered by HighWire