Radionuclide thyroid studies: a survey of practice in the United States in 1981. Special report.

A survey was conducted to determine the radiopharmaceuticals and radionuclide imaging methods used for thyroid studies in the U.S. in 1981. The final sample, made up of 299 hospitals, was taken from a random sample consisting of 10% (337) of U.S. hospitals performing nuclear medicine studies. The survey showed that over one half of thyroid scans were obtained with Tc-99m pertechnetate and over one half of uptake studies were performed with I-131. Uptake determinations accompanied 78% of scans. Only 8% of the uptake studies were performed without scans. I-123 was more commonly used on the west coast and in the northeast, and there was interest in a more readily available and less expensive supply of I-123. Thyroid studies accounted for 6.7% of all nuclear imaging procedures. Approximately 7,760,000 nuclear medicine imaging procedures were performed in the U.S. in 1981.