Question

A patient drinks a tiny sample of iodine-131, a radioactive isotope of iodine. Over the course of two or three hours, what change in the patient would indicate normal thyroid function?

Answer 1

The radio isotope of iodine, Iodine-131 has a very short half-life of about 8.02 days. Radio-iodine treatment is used to treat hyperthyroidism, where in very small amounts of Iodine-131 is administered to the patient, it can easily be absorbed into the blood stream and concentrated into the thyroid gland. Iodine-131 undergoes two step decay process producing highly energetic gamma radiations that can destroy the glandular cells of the thyroid gland. So, the change that would lead to normal thyroid functioning will be radioactivity becoming concentrated in the patient’s thyroid gland.