Objective: Researching clinical symptoms and detecting serum TRAb (TSH receptor antibody - TRAb) concentrations of patients with Graves' disease before and after radioiodine treatment (I-131). Methods: 543 patients with Graves' disease are treated by radioiodine (I-131) at the Nuclear Medicine and Oncology Center - Bach Mai Hospital. Results: 1. The clinical symptoms of the patients before radioiodine treatment: 100 percent patients are suffering from enlargement thyroid and palpitation, 96.9 percent patients are experiencing weight loss, 98.4 percent patients are bearing with warm and moist skin, 62.5 percent patients are enduring dia"hea and 60.9 percent patients have a protrusion. Post 6 to 12 months of the radioiodine treatment, all of these clinical symptoms are disappeared and they become better. 2. Serum TRAb concentration of patients with Graves' disease before and after 6 to 12 months of the radioiodine treatment: Before radioiodine treatment, the serum TRAb concentrations are 344.80 + or - 207.33 U/L
after radioiodine treatment, the serum TRAb concentrations reduce to 13.65 + or - 12.61 U/L. The percentage rate of patients having positive TRAb-test is 85.5 percent, patients having negative TRAb-test is 14.5 percent
post 12 months of the radioiodine treatment, the positive TRAb-test patients' rate is 32.3 percent, the negative TRAb-test patients' rate is 67.7 percent. In conclusion: The serum TRAb concentrations are the crucial data to show the effectiveness of the radioiodine treatment of Graves' disease patients.