Computer-assisted individual estimation of radioiodine thyroid uptake in Grave's disease

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