THE THYROMOBIL PROJECT IN BRAZIL: A PARTIAL ANALYSIS OF THE RESULTS OBTAINED

Prof. Geraldo Medeiros-Neto

1. The THYROMOBIL PROJECT was conducted in Brazil during the months of May and June 2000, with the objectiveMAY-JUNE 2000 THYROMOBIL PROJECT IN BRAZIL: 12,000 km through the interland of the country of evaluating the prevalence of IDD in schoolchildren (6-14 y-old) of small villages, situated in Central Brazil.

2. The THYROMOBIL van was disembarked in Belem, Para, and after mechanical revision (conducted by the local MBenz dealer) and instruments check-up (conducted by Dr. Eduardo Tomimori and Adriana Rossi, both from Sao Paulo) was ready for its long journey south. The plan was to visit 8 Brazilian States and examine schoolchildren in 21 villages, 2 or 3 per village or small town, one from mostly rural school children and other from mostly urban schoolchildren. In practice this did not work very well because transportation by school bus was available in most villages and the classes were a mixed group of rural/urban children

3. In each village/town a public health office was ahead of the THYROMOBIL, preceding the actual examination by the medical team. He alerted the principal of the schools that the THYROMOBIL will be arriving in the next 24-48 hours, and organized the schools for all the papers to be filled and asked for informed consent from the parents. Previously the Ministry of Health sent a formal letter to each of the mayors of the villages asking for his cooperation in this study.

4. As soon as the van THYROMOBIL arrived the schoolchildren were orderly waiting to be weighed and height measured, identification of each one, informed consent, and instructions to bring a sample of salt from her/his domestic use (home salt). Randomly, about 50% of the examined children collected a sample of urine for iodine assays (subsequently stored a -20º in the freezer)

5. All forms completed the child was informed about the echographic examination and thyroid echography was realized, with prints of the test obtained through a video printer (SONY). <6>6. A total of 2013 tests were conducted and 90% of the thyroid echographies were considered as normal. About 1.4% of the children had goiter, 0.8% had cyst/ nodules, 0.2% had thyroid hemiagenesia and 5.7% had hypoechogeneity of variable degree.

7. Results of the iodine content of salt and urine specimens are still pending and a full report will soon be issued.

8. This study was coordinated and supervised by Prof. Geraldo Medeiros-Neto, MD, FACP, with the collaboration of Dr. Adriana Rossi (our main field collaborator), Dr. Eduardo Tomimori (ultrasonographist of the Hospital das Clinicas, Sao Paulo), Dr. Rosalinda Camargo (Thyroid Study Unit, São Paulo), Creusa DalBó (medical statistics).