Clinical outcome of radioactive iodine therapy among patients with hyperthyroidism in St. Luke’s Medical Center - Philippines

Objectives To determine success rate of RAI therapy for hyperthyroidism in the St. Luke’s Medical Center-Quezon City (SLMC-QC)

Methods A chart review of hyperthyroid patients who underwent RAI therapy from January 2010 to February 2011 and had follow-up thyroid function tests from six to 12 months post-therapy was done. Primary outcome measure is the rate of euthyroid or hypothyroid state. Demographic characteristics, clinical manifestations, baseline and follow-up thyroid function tests were obtained. Data were encoded and tallied in SPSS version 10 for windows. Descriptive statistics were generated for all variables. Fischer exact test was used to determine the difference in the success rate of RAI therapy among different institution. A p value of less than 0.05 is considered statistically significant.

Results A total of 22 patients were included. There were 6 males and 16 females with mean age of 40.80 years. Mean dose of radioactive iodine received was 14.4±7.53 mCi. Mean follow-up period was 222.13 ± 83.52 days. Six of the 22 patients, (37.5%) experienced persistent / recurrent hyperthyroidism and 16 (63.6%) attained either euthyroid or a hypothyroid state. Using Fisher’s exact test, there were no statistically significant differences between our success rate at St. Luke’s Medical Center and the abovementioned experiences in different foreign institutions

Conclusions The practice of RAI therapy in St. Luke’s Medical Center for hyperthyroid patients is at par with the experiences of other institutions worldwide. This success rate is comparable to the reported success rates in the abovementioned institutions.