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Restricted intraindividual urinary iodine concentration variability in nonfasting subjects

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 60, pages 421–425 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Objective:

Individual urinary iodine concentration (UIC) reflects iodine intake over a short time prior to sampling. Since eating habits are relatively constant in single subjects, UIC should be relatively constant in a given individual. The aim of our study was to verify this hypothesis by assessing UIC in repeated single urine samples from a group of healthy subjects.

Design and Setting:

A prospective sequential investigation was performed in 131 volunteer health workers or students recruited in our University hospital.

Interventions:

Single urine samples were taken in a nonfasting state, between 0900 and 1100 hours. Group 1 was composed by 131 subjects who collected one urine sample. Group 2 was composed by 11 subjects of the group 1, who collected multiple repeated urine samples (as a whole 158 urine samples, mean 14 samples each). UIC mean±s.d., median and coefficient of variation (CV%) was measured in both groups.

Results:

Interindividual UIC variation was wide, UIC ranging from 21 to 382 μg/l, mean 136±84 μg/l, median 124 μg/l, CV 62%. Also in the 11 subjects repeatedly sampling there were considerable differences among individual UIC average levels (ranging from 37±15 to 221±91 μg/l). However, in this second group, the intraindividual variation was considerably restricted (CV% 36).

Conclusions:

The present study shows that in a nonfasting state in mid-morning UIC is more stable from day to day in a single subject, depending on his eating habits, than in various subjects. Thus, a single urine sample even in nonfasting state may give some rough information about the individual's iodine status.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a Grant, ‘Ricerca sanitaria finalizzata’ n.572/01/95, from the Veneto Regional Authority, Italy. We also thank F Coburn for her help in editing this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Endocrinology Unit, University of Padua, Padua, Italy

    B Busnardo, D Nacamulli, L Zambonin, C Mian, M Piccolo & M E Girelli

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  1. B Busnardo
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  2. D Nacamulli
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  3. L Zambonin
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  4. C Mian
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  5. M Piccolo
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  6. M E Girelli
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to B Busnardo.

Additional information

Guarantors: B Busnardo, C Mian and ME Girelli.

Contributors: BB, CM and MEG are co-principal investigators and are responsible for writing the manuscript; LZ and MP performed the UIC analyses, DN abstracted and analysed the data, performed the statistics and graphs.

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Busnardo, B., Nacamulli, D., Zambonin, L. et al. Restricted intraindividual urinary iodine concentration variability in nonfasting subjects. Eur J Clin Nutr 60, 421–425 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602334

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602334

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