Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Iodine is needed for the production of thyroid hormone. The prediction of iodine intake is difficult. The standard measure of iodine nutrition in a community is the median urinary iodine excretion, expressed in micrograms per liter. According to the WHO, a median urinary iodine excretion of 100–199 μg/l indicates that the iodine intake is adequate.

The aim of this work is to measure the iodine excretion in patients with thyroid nodules in comparison to normal control subjects.

Subjects and methods: Eighty subjects were chosen with thyroid disorder. Sixty female patients: Group I (20 patients with single nodule), Group II (40 patients with multinodular goiter) IIa 28 patients with hypothyroid, group IIb (12 patients euthyroid) Compared to Group III (20 healthy control).

History taking, clinical examination, thyroid ultrasound, thyroid function test, urinary iodine excretion done to all participants.

Results: Urinary iodine excretion in patients with multinodular and single nodule is significantly lowered than in control subjects The mean value of urinary iodine excretion in group I is 22.6±4.7, in group IIa is 22.9±5.9, in group IIb is 30.6±2.8 compared to control group III is 19.2±7.3 with statistical significance (P<0.001).

Conclusion: In our study, an iodine deficiency was observed in all studied patients with thyroid nodule-s whether euthyroid or hypothyroidism. From these results we concluded that reduced urinary iodine excretion in patients is an index of iodine status. Therefore, iodine deficiency contributes to development of thyroid in Egyptian females.