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Summary

Purpose:

We assessed patient discomfort and identified factors predictive of discomfort while receiving radioactive iodine (RAI) ablation.

Methods:

Between August 2015 and April 2016, 52 patients with differentiated thyroid cancer were enrolled in this study. All patients received recombinant human thyroid stimulating hormone (rhTSH) aided RAI ablation using 3.7 GBq or 5.55 GBq of RAI. Discomfort during their stay for RAI ablation was evaluated using a symptom questionnaire. We analyzed the relationship between the patient’s clinical data and the scores for the 15 items of the symptom questionnaire. We compared scores of questionnaires between male and female, under 45 years old and 45 and older, RAI activity of 3.7 GBq and 5.55 GBq. Also, scores of daily questionnaires were tested for differences.

Results:

Most patients did not have severe discomfort, but some patients had mild discomfort during their stay for RAI ablation, despite using rhTSH. Important determinants of discomfort were sex and age. Female patients reported more symptoms of fatigue, facial edema, cold intolerance, and nausea. Older patients (45 and older) complained of insomnia more often. However, the dose of RAI ablation (3.7 GBq vs 5.55 GBq) did not affect the scores of questionnaires.

Conclusions:

Sex and age were important predictors of patient’s discomfort during RAI ablation. Clinicians need to explain more about treatment and predicted discomforts to such patients before RAI ablation.

Author information

K. Pak (1), S. Kim (1), S. Shin (1), K. Kim (1), B. Kim (2), S.-J. Kim (2), W. Cha (3), J. Jang (3), B. Lee (3), Y. Jeon (4), S. Kim (4), B. H. Kim (4), I. J. Kim (1)
(1) Kyoungjune Pak and So Jung Kim contributed equally to this work as first authors.

1 Department of Nuclear Medicine and Biomedical Research Institute, Pusan National University Hospital, Busan, Korea; (2) Department of Nuclear Medicine and Research Institute for Convergence of Biomedical Science and Technology, Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital, Yangsan, Korea; (3) Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery and Biomedical Research Institute, Pusan National University Hospital, Busan, South Korea; (4) Department of Internal Medicine and Biomedical Research Institute, Pusan National University Hospital, Busan, Korea