Endocrine Abstracts

Parathyroid glands are critical not only for regulation of the phosphorous-calcium metabolism, but also have a key role in the function of nervous, cardiovascular, digestive and other human body systems. Parathyroids are capable of accumulating the isotopes of cesium, strontium and radioactive iodine, which can lead to parathyroid cell damage and emergence of glandular dysfunction. Significant radioactive environmental releases and fallout after the Chernobyl NPP accident in 1986 were followed by incorporation of the, first and foremost, isotopes of iodine, cesium and strontium, which on top of that were accumulated in parathyroids. Since radioactive iodine is both alpha- and beta-emitter the accumulation of it in large amounts by the thyroid results in the secondary irradiation of parathyroids. Just similar situation is characteristic for the Fukushima NPP accident. Radiation exposure of parathyroids leads to the onset of related disorders of other systems. Unfortunately, we have started such a long-term research for the first time only now, i.e. about 30 years after the exposure of the survived people. We have now the very first important results here. Namely the 686 adults and 54 of their first-generation descendants were examined, and the obtained data testify to an increase in the incidence (28.64%) of clinically important parathyroid hyperplasia (more than 9 mm in adults, and more than 5 mm in children) among subjects irradiated after the Chornobyl accident, especially in the clean-up workers for a long time involved in recovery operations in the Chornobyl zone, and in their descendants (23.8–70.6%). Those adult subjects who live in areas contaminated by radioactive strontium and cesium are of especial concern when compared with the control group of unexposed subjects (24.15% incidence). The evacuees from the 30-km Chornobyl exclusion zone are the another group of risk as they were exposed from the incorporated iodine isotopes in the early days of the Chornobyl accident. Some detected abnormalities were not linked to the functional state parathyroids or lack of vitamin D. Continuation of the research will clarify the causative relationships here.