Re: Iodine-131 emergency response -Reply

[Ccja@aol.com]

Mike

Was the observation about cleaning up with Povidone tongue-in-cheek? There's
no question that iodine from such preps transpires the skin (we're talking
about a halogen, after all), but I would think that the effect is to reduce
the avidity of the gland, rather than a "real" blocking action. It is true
that this is something that physicians must watch for. You know, of course,
that patients are typically put on low-iodine diets for an interval before
their treatments, because uptake is increased, somewhat, thereby. But, if
they're not warned against the use of iodine-based skin preps, as well, the
usefulness of the dietary restriction is vitiated. We dropped the ball on
this recently, when we had a patient on dialysis (3 treatments/wk). She got
instructions to lay off the salmon, iodized salt, vitamin/mineral tabs, etc.,
but nobody thought to abjure her therapists from their usual practice of
painting her arm liberally with Povidone. Live and learn. Incidentally, what
about kelp tablets?

chris alston