ABSTRACT
Objective To survey the highly risk iodine deficiency regions of Shandong Province and to provide reference basis for further executing urgent iodine supply. Methods The annual document of cretinism in Licheng District in Jinan City and Shouguang City, the two iodine deficiency regions, were referred. Forty children aged 8-10 years of 2 targeted schools from 3 towns out of every targeted region underwent palpation, ultrasonography and As3+-Ce4+catalyzing speetrophotometry for ultra iodine examination. Twenty women aged 18-40 years from 2 villages sampled from every targeted town received ultra iodine examination and edible salt examination of iodine with direct titration. Results No new cretinism and suspected cretinism was found since 1995 in the regions. The goiter rates of children of the two regions detected with palpation and ultrasonography were 7.5% (18/241),6.2% (15/241) and 5.0% (13/259), 1.2% (3/259), respectively. Two hundred forty and 249 urine samples were respectively collected in school children, in which the median urinary iodine was 226.3,282.7 μg/L. One hundred twenty urine samples were respectively collected from the two group of women, resulting a median urinary iodine of 187.2,321.7 μg/L. Eight and 2 salt samples were free of iodine in 120 salt samples collected each region, respectively. The rate of qualified iodized salt was 100%. Conclusions It is not necessary to urgently implement iodine supply in Shouguang City and Licheng District. However, reinforcement of supervise on salt industry and eliminating the hazard from non-iodized and disqualified iodized salt remains in need.