Thyroid pathology as late radiation effect caused by exposure to radiation during emergencies

Several emergencies at "Mayak" Production Association (PA Mayak) led to radioactive contamination of some territories in the Urals; the territories were contaminated with radionuclides mixture and it caused consequent external and internal irradiation of population living there. Our research goal was to examine thyroid state 50-60 years after exposure to radiation in childhood. Our research objects to study thyroid gland structure and functioning were people who lived on territories contaminated with radionuclides in their childhood (The Techa river banks and the Eastern Urals radioactive track territory) and who then moved to Ozersk. The group was made of 256 people who accounted for 70 % of all such migrants who were available to us. Thyroid gland diseases were examined allowing for all the available data of subjective and objective clinical and laboratory screening examination, namely complaints, thyroid gland and neck area examination, ultrasound examination of thyroid gland structure, laboratory tests of thyroid gland functions. Our research results revealed that all thyroid gland diseases prevailed in people who lived on radioactively contaminated territories in their early childhood 50-60 years after they moved to other places. Thus, such morbidity amounted to 64 % among women and to 32 % among men which was 1.6 times higher against people who were not exposed to any technogenic radiation during their lives. We detected statistically significant 2-2.6 times higher risks of thyroid pathology in migrants at Р-value 0.012 and 131I, which accumulated in the thyroid gland: odds relation amounted to 2.8 and 2.4 (90 % confidence interval being 2.08-3.83 and 1.45-4.06 for women and men correspondingly).