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Summary:Thyroid dysfunction, a common long-term complication following bone marrow transplantation (BMT), is frequently associated with total body irradiation (TBI) given in the pre-BMT conditioning protocol. We report our preliminary observation of the prevalence of thyroid dysfunction in children transplanted for primary immunodeficiency (PID) who were given cytoreductive conditioning with busulphan and cyclophosphamide, but without TBI. We evaluated thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and free thyroxine (fT4) in 83 survivors transplanted between 1987 and 2002. We found nine children (10.8%) with clinical and/or biochemical thyroid dysfunction at 4 months to 4.5 years post-BMT of which three had positive antithyroid microsomal antibodies. Two patients were classified as primary and seven as compensated hypothyroidism (hyperthyrotropinaemia). Four patients with clinical features of hypothyroidism received replacement thyroxine, while five of the seven patients with compensated hypothyroidism remain off thyroxine because we suspect this may be a transient phenomenon. Abnormalities of thyroid function including severe primary hypothyroidism may occur post-BMT in children receiving chemotherapy conditioning without TBI. Thyroid function should be assessed regularly in this group of patients.

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Duplex stainless steels (DSSs) have generally performed very well in caustic environments. However, some corrosion and stress corrosion cracking (SCC) of DSSs have been reported in different pulp mill environments employing caustic solutions. Studies have shown that the corrosion and SCC susceptibility of DSSs depend on the alloy composition and microstructure of the steel. In this study, the effect of a sulfide-containing caustic environment (pulping liquor) and material properties (DSS alloy composition and microstructure) on the corrosion and SCC of DSSs was evaluated. During metal fabrication processes, localized areas of DSSs may be exposed to different temperatures and cooling rates, which may lead to changes in the microstructure in these regions. This change in microstructure, in turn, may affect the general and localized corrosion or SCC susceptibility of the affected area as compared to the rest of the metal. Hence, the effect of different annealing and aging temperatures as well as cooling rates on the microstructure and corrosion behavior of S32205 DSSs in caustic environment was evaluated. The results showed that changes in the microstructure of S32205 DSSs due to selected heat treatments did not have a significant effect on the general corrosion susceptibility of the steel in caustic environment, but its SCC susceptibility varied with changes in microstructures.