MichaelT. Harrison

Some aspects of the absorption and concentration of iodide by the alimentary tract in man.

SYMPOSIUM PROCEEDINGS I967 disease is furthermore often associated with chronic pancreatic damage. It is therefore interesting to find that patients with cirrhosis often have markedly increased iron absorption and that this can be reduced towards normal on giving the test dose with pancreatin (Callender, 1965). In an attempt to elucidate further the part played by the pancreas in iron absorption, Helen Brown (unpublished), in our laboratory, produced pancreatic damage with ethionine in rats on a restricted protein intake. She investigated the absorption in two groups of rats, one given an iron supplement and one iron-deficient. These groups were further subdivided into those with and those without pancreatic damage. Iron absorption in the rats with the iron supplement was increased in those with pancreatic damage and addition of pancreatin restored absorption to normal, but in the iron-deficient rats the findings were reversed, i.e., pancreatic damage was accompanied by diminished iron absorption which was restored to control values by the addition of pancreatin. These contradictory findings emphasize the complexity of the problems of iron absorption. In these few remarks I have only touched on some of the factors which affect iron absorption. Iron deficiency remains one of the world’s greatest nutritional problems and until we learn a great deal more about the complex mechanisms and interactions of the many factors concerned in the control of iron absorption, it is likely to remain with us.

The effect of total fasting on thyroid function in man.

Abstract Serial studies of iodine metabolism were carried out in 8 obese patients before and during total deprivation of food. Evidence of decreasing thyroid function was suggested by a fall in uptake of both radioactive and stable iodine by the gland and by a fall in serum protein-bound iodine. The renal clearance and urinary excretion of iodine also fell. The amount of thyroid hormone deiodinated was calculated as 45.5 and 39.5 μg. of hormonal iodine daily.

NON-TOXIC GOITRE IN MALES.

Occult bleeding from the gastro-intestinal tract for which no cause can be found is not uncommon in cases of iron-deficiency anaemia. A follow-up study of 68 patients in whom this diagnosis was made after initial investigation has revealed only 17 in whom some cause of bleeding became apparent (in 12 aspirin ingestion, in two bleeding piles, in one a gastric ulcer, in one a possible carcinoma of the rectum, and in one a carcinoma of the colon). The great majority of the remaining 51 patients were in good health two to 21 years after their initial investigation. Recurrence of the anaemia was frequent, occurring in over half the group, but it appeared to respond satisfactorily to oral iron.