Background@#Concerns have been raised regarding
thyroid disorders caused by excessive
iodine in
Koreans,
who have
iodine-rich
diets. This study evaluated
iodine status using dietary
iodine intake and urinary
iodine in
papillary thyroid cancer (PTC)
patients. @*
Methods@#Dietary data of PTC
patients were assessed using a 24-hour recall and
food frequency
questionnaire (FFQ), and urinary
iodine concentrations (UICs) were also obtained. To compare the
iodine status of PTC
patients, Korean
adults with or without
thyroid disease from the
Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which had 24-hour recall data and urinary
iodine measurements, were analyzed. @*Results@#The median daily
iodine intake by 24-hour recall was 341.7 μg/day in PTC
patients,
similar to the levels of other Korean
adults. Based on UICs, the
prevalence of excessive
iodine was 54.4% in PTC
patients, which was
similar to the
prevalence among subjects with
thyroid disease (55.4%) but slightly higher than that in subjects without
thyroid disease (47.7%). Based on dietary
iodine by 24-hour recall, the
prevalence of excessive
iodine intake was 7.2%, which was higher than that among subjects with (4.4%) or without (3.9%)
thyroid disease. The dietary
iodine intake based on 24-hour recall was closely correlated with the UIC (r=0.4826) in PTC
patients, but dietary
iodine by FFQ was not significantly correlated with either 24-hour recall or UIC-based dietary
iodine. @*Conclusion@#Excessive
iodine intake was more common in PTC
patients than in subjects without
thyroid disease. Further longitudinal
research is necessary to elucidate the
role of dietary
iodine in PTC.