January 23, 2012, 4:18 pm

Iodide Heart Scans Linked to Thyroid Disease

By ANAHAD O'CONNOR

American Heart AssociationAn angiogram of a 49-year-old man with unstable angina.

A common iodide contrast agent given to millions of patients who undergo medical scans every year raises the risk of thyroid disease, a new study shows.
Iodide, a form of the chemical element iodine, is widely used as a radiocontrast agent to allow doctors to see blood vessels and tissues in medical imaging tests. In a typical year, about 80 million doses of iodinated contrast agents are administered worldwide, largely for CT scans, cardiac catheterizations and other angiograms, and their use is growing as the technology spreads to developing countries.
In the new study, the first large-scale look at whether the drugs can seriously affect thyroid function, scientists at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital examined data on a large group of people who were treated at Boston-area hospitals for various conditions and followed over a 20-year period. The researchers found that the people who went on to develop thyroid disease — either overactive or underactive thyroid — were two to three times as likely to have been injected with an iodide contrast agent than those who did not develop the disease.
“We were very surprised by the magnitude of the associations,” said Dr. Steven M. Brunelli, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and an author of the study, which was published in Archives of Internal Medicine. “We obviously expected to find something or we wouldn’t have embarked on the study. But to see these twofold or even threefold changes in risk was more than we had expected.” end quote from: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/23/iodide-heart-scans-linked-to-thyroid-disease/

I also have had a Iodide Heart Scan in Fall 1998. However, because I was raised a Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian since birth this also is a major contributing factor to my being diagnosed at age 58 with a Hypothyroid condition. However, it is very distressing for me to hear that there is a 2 or 3 fold increase in risk for thyroid problems by having one Iodide Heart Scan. I presently use Armour Thyroid which has no side effects at all which I get from Canada with my doctor's prescription. I like it because it works for me WITHOUT ANY side effects and makes me feel like I'm about 20 years old again in my mind.