Increased Uptake of Iodine-131 by the Thyroid Gland after Administration of Hesperidine Methyl Chalcone

Abstract

Scott(1) has shown that the rat's thyroid takes up 50 to 200% more radioiodine under the influence of hesperidine methyl chalcone (H.M.C.). It was therefore decided to try this drug in human beings in order to determine its effect upon thyroidal accumulation of radioiodine. This drug is known to suppress the output of I¹³¹ through the kidney; probably I¹³¹ stays in the body in circulation a long enough time to favor increased uptake by the gland.

Method. Nineteen patients having the diagnoses shown in Table I were studied. All of these were considered to be euthyroid except K.E. and O.C. who were judged to be hyper-and hypothyroid respectively . Two periods of tests were done on each patient. These were the first or the patient's control period before the administration of H.M.C. and the second or his testing period following the administration of H.M.C. At the start of the control period, 20 μc I¹³¹ was given orally. Thyroid gland uptake measurements were done at 24-hour intervals for 96 hours. After a rest period of three days, the same patient's thyroid uptake was again measured for residual I¹³¹ then 1.0 g of H.M.C. mixture in water was ingested. After an hour lapse to allow for effective absorption of the drug the patient ingested 80 μc I131. At 24-hour intervals, for 96 hours, his thyroid gland uptake was measured and due correction for decay and effective half-life was made for the residual I¹³¹ uptake from the control period. The tracer dose of 80 μ I¹³¹ was large enough to be readily measurable in the presence of residual I¹³¹ and thus also to minimize statistical differences between the measurements of the two periods.

Results. Studies on the nineteen patients summarized in Table I show that the oral administration of one gram of H.M.C. significantly increases the thyroidal accumulation of I¹³¹.