THE extent to which ingested tracer doses of radioiodine are taken up by the thyroid gland has been studied as a potential index of thyroid dysfunction in man (1–7). The present appraisal is based on experience in this laboratory with almost 1,400 such measurements, made between October 1946 and February 1950, in both hospitalized patients and outpatients. The orientation of this work has been towards the establishment of a tracer method which would provide optimal simplicity, rapidity and accuracy in routine clinical use. The tracer method used throughout has been that of direct measurement over the thyroid to determine the percentage uptake by the gland at twenty-four hours after an ingested dose of 40 microcuries of radioiodine, I131, carrier free. In the initial phase of the work, a dose of 100 microcuries was used. This was reduced to 40 microcuries, after a brief experience, when no significant difference in uptake was found with the smaller test dose.
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Werner et al. (1950) studied this question.