Radio-iodine Intake

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30561, 2 October 1964, Page 7

Radio-iodine Intake

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, October 1. The amount of radioactive iodine taken by the human thyroid during therapy and in diagnostic processes will be measured in New Zealand this month by Dr. G. Gomez-Crespo, radiotherapist at the Vienna headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Announcing this today, Mr G. E. Roth, director of the National Radiation Laboratory of the Department of

Health, said in a supplied statement that Dr. GomezCrespo would start work at Auckland Hospital on October 5. The radiotherapist’s research would take him to Palmerston North Hospital, Wellington Hospital, Christchurch Hospital, the National Radiation Laboratory, and Dunedin before he left Christchurch on October 22 for Sydney. Mr Roth said that in the last 20 years, radioactive iodine had become one of the most widely used radioactive substances in medicine—and its use for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes was still increasing. “The measurement of the amount of radio-iodine taken up by the human thyroid during therapy and in diagnostic processes is therefore of par-

ticular importance, and broad agreement on measuring methods has been reached,” he said. “In order to arrive at uniform methods of measurements, the International Atomic Energy Agency—set up by the United Nations to assist its members in all aspects of the peaceful uses of atomic energy—has convened meetings of experts on this subject,” he said. Mr Roth said the idea had subsequently provided the opportunity for interested governments to take part in international comparison measurements recommended by experts.

“These measurements are being carried out by Dr. Gomez-Crespo who has visited about 200 of the major radioisotope clinics in the world in the last year.