Radioactive Iodine Treatment

The results of a Mayo Clinic study of Graves' disease patients who had received radioactive iodine (RAI) treatment have been evaluated,  to study the possible risk factors associated with the onset of  Thyroid Eye Disease ( also knows as Graves Opthalmopathy)
Varying symptoms looked at in the study were bulging of the eyeball ( proptosis ),the clearness of sight, double vision, the necessity for medical intervention, and the patients' own assessments of their eyes  and eye health. In total 195 patients were looked at with a mean age of fifty years and of those eighty per cent of the sample were female. Twelve months after radioactive iodine treatment, it was found that thyroid eye disease affected the patients worse in a total of thirteen per cent of the study group.  The researchers found that at least fifty percent of the patients were hypothyroid at the first follow-up visit post procedure and this was this was  linked to  the development or worsening of Graves Opthalmopathy.  There was clearly a higher risk of hypothyroidism and GO the longer patients left their treatment from their first follow up appointment. It was evaluated that patients should be re-evaluated no later than six week after the radioactive iodine treatments.