The nonimpact of thyroid stunning: Remnant ablation rates in I-131-scannedand nonscanned individuals

Thyroid stunning has been reported as the temporary impairment of thyroid t issue after a 111-MBq or greater diagnostic I-131 dose that decreases the f inal absorbed dose in ablative therapy. Concerns regarding the reality of s tunning have arisen in part due to a flawed study design in prior reports. To assess whether a stunning effect has any impact on therapeutic outcomes, we compared initial treatment ablation rates in patients who received 111- to 185-MBq I-131 diagnostic scans (n = 37) before ablative doses of 3700-7 400 MBq with ablation rates in patients who did not receive any I-131 befor e the initial treatment dose (n = 63). Ablation rates were 64.9% for scanne d patients and 66.7% for nonscanned patients, a nonsignificant difference. Nonscanned patients with metastatic lesions (n = 23) were ablated at a high er rate (78.3%) than scanned patients (n = 9) (66.7%), but the difference w as not significant (P = 0.50). It is possible that the reported stunning ph enomenon, specifically its impact in temporarily impairing tissue, has been overemphasized.