re: X-ray Acne Treatment [2]

["Jack Topper"<jdtopper@icnpharm.com>]

I have been following this thread and decided to discuss it with my mother
(an eminently reliable source) who was given X-ray treatments twice a week
for six weeks (in either 1947,1948 or 1950; she can't remember if it was
just before or just after I was born) for the treatment of rosatia (sp?), a
skin condition sometimes referred to as adult acne.  Apparently, rosatia is
difficult to cure.  Four of my sisters are afflicted with it, as am I to a
small extent.
Dr. Robert Murphy, a dermatologist practicing in Kansas City, MO at that
time, claimed that he could treat the condition with X-rays and that it
would NEVER come back.  So, naturally, she said OK.
Dr. Murphy performed two treatments a week for six weeks.  He provided
covering (shielding?) only for her eyes, and gave her a shot in the arm
after each treatment, explaining that a "red spot" would form at the point
of the injection, and that she was to compare the diameter of the spot to
coins so he could use that information to adjust successive treatments.
The first exposure resulted in a "half-dollar" sized spot.  The spots
became progressively smaller with each treatment  --  I'd have to guess Dr.
Murphy was reducing the exposure as he went along.
According to her, the treatments burned her face terribly, with redening,
blistering and scab formation, and was quite painful. She stated that her
face looked so horrible that she refused to open the door to visitors as
she was too embarrased at her appearance.  This sounds like an erythema
dose to me, which I know can also be caused by UV, but she was adamant
about the treatment being from X-ray device.  Who am I to argue?  In time,
her skin healed, and the rosatia was gone, just  as Dr. Murphy had claimed.
In the late 50's she began experiencing a number of maladies, shakes,
etc.and was diagnosed with a hyperactive thyroid in 1961.  Between 1961 and
1965 she was given a number of iodine treatments, but doesn't remember if
they were radioiodines or not.  She DOES remember taking iodine cocktails
at home (I remember them too:  I used to pour her a Creme-de-Menthe on ice
so she could swallow that foul stuff), so perhaps they were not
radioactive. And somehow, I can't imagine a physician just handing over,
even 35 years ago, a quantity of radioactive iodine to a patient for
self-administration.
She had a thyroidectomy in 1965 and has been just fine ever since.  All of
the symptoms she had been experiencing dissappeared.  She is convinced that
the rosatia treatments led to her thyroid problems.  From her descriptions,
I would find it hard to argue with her.
Does anyone have any data that could substantiate or refute such a belief?
Does anyone out there know what the "red spot" injections might have
contained or what caused the reaction?  What about the self-administered
iodines?  Can non-radioactive iodine have a theraputic effect on the
thyroid?
Any responses to this can be made privately, if you don't think it would be
of interest to the group, and any info submitted will  be used only to
satisfy my (our) curiosity.
Jack Topper
ICN Dosimetry Services
3300 Hyland Avenue
Costa Mesa, CA  92626
(714) 545-0100 ext. 2257
jdtopper@icnpharm.com