Salivary flow rate and radioactivity in saliva, blood and serum of benign and malignant thyroid patients after 131I therapy

Background: salivary flow rate (sfr), to estimate salivary gland dysfunction and radioactivity in different body fluids, to evaluate its intensity, were determined in thyroid patients after 131-i therapy. material and methods: for determination of sfr an innovative sponge test was adopted and the radioactivity in saliva, blood and serum of thyroid patients was determined by nai (ti) scintillation radiation detector. results: there was a significant reduction in sfr at 2 weeks after rait. at 3 hours after administration of 555−1073 mbq to the benign thyroid patients, the radioactivity in 1 g of saliva, 2.5 ml of blood and 0.6 ml of serum was 17.24, 0.74 and 0.25 mbq respectively. in the same patients, at 2 weeks after rait, the radioactivity was decreased and was found to be 0.22, 0.13 and 0.09 mbq in saliva, blood and serum respectively. in malignant thyroid patients treated with 3700−9250 mbq, the radioactivity at 3 hours after rait in the studied samples of saliva, blood and serum was 200.72, 9.14 and 3.07 mbq and at 2 weeks after rait, radioactivity in samples was decreased up to 0.15, 0.05 and 0.03 mbq respectively. conclusions: an indigenously designed sponge test was simple, safe and quick method to determine the sfr. the sudden increase of radioactivity was found in all studied samples within 3 hours after rait and reduced significantly at 2 weeks after rait. the raised radioactivity at 3 hours after rait was sufficient to impart its harmful effects even to all interactive persons.