Assessment from in vivo measurements of thyroid dose due to iodine-131 inhalation when stable iodine has been administered

International audience; Potassium iodide (KI) is a well-known thyroid prophylactic agent that blocks the incorporation of radioactive iodide in the thyroid; it is generally available for oral administration by the population in case of a nuclear release. However, the blockage provided by KI is not 100% effective and therefore activity could still be measured in the thyroid after an intake of radioactive iodine. As a consequence of KI administration the thyroid retention function and the thyroid dose coefficient are modified. To assess the thyroid dose from in vivo measurements these two quantities must be taken into account. In this work we considered the inhalation of 131-iodine by adult, children (1, 5, 10 years-old) and adolescents (15 years). The effect of KI administration was modelled by a time-dependent blood to thyroid transfer rate coefficient. The model was benchmarked against dose coefficient in the absence of KI and against the protective effect curves depending on KI administration time. This KI specific model was used to provide correction factors for dose assessment. These multiplicative correction factors apply to a “classical” dose assessment, i.e. a dose assessment based on the ICRP default model that ignores the KI effect. This solution has been preferred since it provides ready to use values avoiding implementing the KI specific model. The correction factors depend on the measurement time and on the KI administration time. They are relatively independent of age and can be described by simple analytic functions. Working examples are provided in this study. For examples, KI administration 12h before the intake and early in vivo measurements (between 4h and 64h) after the intake give correction factors between 1.2 and 15. For late measurements the correction factors are generally small. If KI has been taken after the intake the correction factors are also generally small, except for very early measurements. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd