Evaluation of pathological effects in people occupationally exposed to radioiodine and problems of differential diagnosis

The results of medical supervision of people occupationally exposed for 20 years to low-level radiation are presented. The study group was selected according to characteristics of work (production of radioiodine in the Boris Kidric Institute and applications in medicine and radiation research), occupation, sex, age, and dosimetric data. Medical controls included a general clinical examination of physiological systems with special regard to the thyroid gland and its hormone measurements (triiodothyronine, thyroxine); biochemical analyses; haematologic examinations for quantitative changes of leucocytes, erythrocytes and platelets; incidence of cytomorphological aberrations in white blood cells; changes in values of haemoglobin and haematocryte; and radiotoxicological procedures for evaluation of internal contamination with 131I. The problems of differential diagnosis of some states and diseases according to the physiological systems were analysed with special attention to focuses in the organism which can give morphological and functional changes or as far as their look is concerned that could be very similar to changes caused by effects of ionizing radiation. The analysis included also the incidence of diseases of the thyroid gland performed by clinical and laboratory criteria for diagnosis. (author)