Abstract
This study deals with (1) the evaluation of the amount of circulating thyrotropic factor in clinical hyperthyroidism, (2) the effect of iodine on such circulating thyrotropic factor, and (3) the influence of the parenteral injection of adrenalin on thyrotropic discharge from the anterior pituitary in the intact and the totally thyroidectomized experimental animals.
Method. Biological assay was used for the determination of thyrotropic factor. This technic involves histological examination of the thyroids of young guinea pigs not exceeding 200 g in weight, following subcutaneous injection of 5 cc of serum from the patient or experimental animals. The guinea pigs were injected on 2 successive days and were killed with ether 24 hours after the last injection. The thyroid lobes were then removed, fixed in 10% formalin, and stained with hematoxylin-eosin. The thyroids were then examined for hyperplastic changes. Following the injection of varying amounts of pure thyrotropic factor there occur changes in the thyroid characterized by a decrease in the amount of colloid in the follicles an increase in the height of the cells lining the acini, a decrease in the size of the alveoli, and not infrequently mitosis may be observed.1-4 These findings are not dissimilar to those observed in the thyroids of patients with Graves'disease. The amount of circulating thyrotropic factor in the serum of our patients and experimental animals was determined on the basis of the criteria just outlined.
Specimens of blood were obtained from patients with Graves'disease before treatment and again on the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, and 11th days after lugolization was started. Five cc of the serum was injected into the guinea pigs on 2 successive days. The animals were killed 24 hours later and their thyroids promptly removed. On several patients samples of blood were also obtained on the 2nd, 4th, and 6th days, after subtotal thyroidectomy.
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