ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To reveal the relationship between iodine nutrition and the change of spectrum on thyroid diseases through comparing the different iodine environments pre- and post- the universal salt iodization(USI)campaign.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>To compare the urinary iodine concentration between 1000 normal people and 5998 patients with thyroid disease who had undergone surgical operations, from 4 major cities, including iodine deficient and rich areas of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>After USI was put into practice, the urinary iodine concentration of patients with thyroid appeared higher than those of normal people(324.3 µg/L vs. 238.5 µg/L, P < 0.05). The urinary iodine concentrations of nodular goiter,Graves disease, toxic nodular goiter, thyroid papillary carcinoma and Hashimoto's thyroiditis were higher than those before the USI was taken(263.8 µg/L vs. 69.75 µg/L, 289.7 µg/L vs. 228.3 µg/L, 346.8 µg/L vs. 268.4 µg/L, 350.3 µg/L vs. 316.2 µg/L and 378.5 µg/L vs. 305.8 µg/L). The proportions of toxic nodular goiter, thyroid papillary carcinoma and Hashimoto's thyroiditis appeared as 7.59% vs. 4.80%, 5.85% vs. 4.02% and 3.88% vs. 2.46%, all higher than those before the implementation of USI, except the nodular goiter which showed a reduction (63.56% vs. 69.75%).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The spectrum of thyroid diseases appeared an obvious change in Guangxi within the last 10-year implementation of USI. However, the excessive intake of iodine might serve as a risk factor for toxic nodular goiter, thyroid papillary carcinoma and Hashimoto's thyroiditis.</p>