COMPUTER-ASSISTED INDIVIDUAL ESTIMATION OF RADIOIODINE THYROID UPTAKEIN GRAVES-DISEASE

A computer-assisted Bayesian individual estimation of radioiodine thyr oid uptake kinetics for patients suffering from Grave's disease is pro posed. The program provides a fast computation of the activity to be a dministered to a given patient to achieve a target thyroid absorbed do se. This determination relies upon the patient biological covariates a nd upon a small number of measurements performed during a preliminar k inetic study of radioiodine thyroid uptake. Our results indicate that a two-sample Bayesian approach is reliable when external thyroid count s are performed at 2 h and 168 h after a test dose and has advantages over conventional kinetic experiments in terms of patient acceptabilit y. This method is implemented on widespread computers and interfaced w ith a patient database. An interactive user interface with in-line dat a checking is provided. The program could be also a tool to better stu dy the relationship between the absorbed dose and the clinical effect.