Hi does anyone know if it’s safe to have an iodine contrast for a CT thorax scan with Hashimotos, I’m confused if it’s good or bad with Hashimotos as I’m worried it might make my heart race. My lastest blood test results from the NHS are TSH - 0.07 (0.30 - 5.00) and T4 - 11.1 (11.5 - 22.70) and cortisol 575 done on the 12th May and the medichecks which I did in March are TSH - 0.02 (0.27-4.2), T3 - 4.57 (3.1 - 6.8), T4 - 15.4 (12-22), thyroglobulin antibodies- 21 (<115) and thyroid peroxidase antibodies 99 (<34)
Any advice would be helpful please thank you x
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Bess48
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The first effect of iodine on the thyroid is unexpected: It temporally shuts off thyroid hormone production in most people. This effect is transient, lasting only a day to a few days. A very few people have long-lasting low thyroid levels after iodine exposure, such as the IV contrast dye for CT scan. The intravenous contrast in generally eliminated from the system within one or two hours by the kidneys.
I had a CT scan with contrast (iodine) 3 months ago and it didn't make my heart race, and I suffer from sporadic tachycardia so if it did affect the heart I expect mine would have reacted at the time. However, that's just my experience, I can't say it will be the same for everyone.
Whilst I do not know for sure whether I had an iodine contrast in my two angiograms but I think I did. I can say I was not good after the first one. Looking back I was almost hyper, over excited etc was desperate to urinate after it (no doubt to get it out of my system) and I was not allowed to sit up. However I felt I was in the right place if it went wrong. Be sure to go to the loo before you have it - no matter how long you have to wait. Did it affect my hypothyroidism? No idea because I did not know at that juncture I was suffering from hypothyroidism as my blood tests were never properly followed up by my medics. The second one was technically much improved picture plus no side effects.
Hopefully someone with a more specific experience will get to you soon.
Just to clarify, my CT scan was thorax like yours whereas arTistapple's was an angiogram. Looking at the NHS page on angiograms it seems to be quite different, especially concerning how/where the dye is injected. See
I got up immediately after the scan, there was no waiting for any reason. Just had to go back to the nurse to have the cannula removed then I could go home.
When the dye is injected they tell you that you may get the sensation of "wetting yourself" and I did get that sensation but you most certainly don't wet yourself and I didn't need to rush to the loo afterwards.
They do tell you to drink plenty of water for the next couple of days, this helps flush the dye out of your system. I drink mainly water anyway, just have one cup of coffee a day, so I just drank a bit extra for a couple of days. I had no after effects or ill effects whatsoever.
I had a with contrast CT scan in A&E last October. This, along with a biopsy, diagnosed kidney cancer. I had another staging scan, with contrast, in November. The offending kidney was removed in December. When I got my copy of all the hospital notes the CT scan report said about a thyroid cyst, so I went to the doctor asking if that needed follow up. I posted about that here and will get round to doing a follow-up post after my next appointment.
I’ve had a cough since last November (that seems to have cleared up now) and a feeling of pressing in my throat for a while, previous to October last year it was when I was feeling rough/ill etc. now it’s pretty constant. I had an appointment (which really could have been an email) last week with the consultant endo/surgeon, and one specific thing I asked was could the contrast, as it’s iodine based and as the thyroid is the only organ which uses iodine, and as my thyroid doesn’t work so can’t use the iodine, had it absorbed the contrast and ‘fed’ the cyst? I really need the answer as I have my first post surgery scan coming up, and just wanted to be aware if it was going to make the thyroid cysts worse.
And the answer was they do CT scans with contrast on thyroid patients all the time with no adverse effects, so it’s a safe procedure.
Obviously we’re all individuals and react differently but on the whole the benefits outweigh any risks.
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