Abstract
In experiments on rats, a significant influence of an extraordinarily high bromide intake on the whole-body biological half-life of iodine was established. Very high bromide intake (1) decreased the amount of radioiodide accumulated in the thyroid, (2) changed the proportion between the amount of iodine retained in the thyroid and the total amount of absorbed iodine, (3) significantly shortened the biological half-life of iodine in the thyroid from approximately 101 h to 33 h in animals maintained on an iodine-sufficient diet and from 92 h to about 30 h in rats fed a low-iodine diet, and (4) changed the time-course (added a further phase) of iodine elimination from the body These changes were caused, with high probability, by an increase of iodine elimination by kidneys due to an excess of bromide. The overall picture of iodine elimination in animals fed the low-iodine diet was similar to that in animals maintained on iodine-sufficient diet.