Thyroidism Essay

Hyperthyroidism, also known as Thyrotoxicosis, is a condition that is caused by the excessive release of thyroid hormones into the body. These thyroid hormones include thyroxine and triiodothyronine. Hyperthyroidism, while not a deadly disease, effects about 1.2% of the population, occurs mostly in women, and can have detrimental effects on the body. Generally, Hyperthyroidism arises as a symptom of other more prevalent diseases. An example of this is Graves disease. Graves disease is the number one cause of hyperthyroidism and is classified as an autoimmune disease that overstimulates Thyroid Stimulating Hormone receptors and leads to an excessive overproduction of these thyroid hormones. Another example of a cause of Hyperthyroidism
The intended purpose of radioactive iodine is to eliminate all of the tissue that is over producing the thyroid hormone. However, in recent years, it has been shown that 10% to 40% of patients who receive radioactive iodine have to receive additional treatment. The experiment used to determine the efficiency of radioactive iodine used adult patients who were not pregnant and did not have thyroid cancer. A total of 325 patients were studied, a majority of them were women. Of the 325 people in the study, 74 failed the treatment of radioactive iodine and needed to be retreated. It was found that 75.7% of the patients who failed the treatment needed to be retreated within the first year of remission. While 14.9% needed to be treated after 2.6 years in remission. In the conclusion of the article it is said that 23% of those who participated in the study failed the iodine treatment, and later needed higher doses of radioactive iodine, or even full removal of the thyroid gland through a thyroidectomy. It was shown that radioactive iodine is more successful in mild cases of hyperthyroidism and is much less effective in the treatment of severe