Pierre Neve

PRECLINICAL HYPOTHYROIDISM: A RISK FACTOR FOR CORONARY HEART-DISEASE

Abstract In a systematic study, 406 female and 400 male patients admitted to clinical wards for miscellaneous non-thyroid diseases were screened for thyroid antibodies and serum-cholesterol levels. The clinical and laboratory data were analysed by computer. In the female population asymptomatic thyroiditis (i.e., preclinical hypothyroidism) represents an important risk-factor for coronary heart-disease (C.H.D.). It abolishes the well-established sex-ratio for C.H.D. Increased levels of serum-cholesterol may play a part in this pathogenic mechanism. However, an alternative explanation is that a genetic factor may be responsible both for the tendency to develop atherosclerosis and for the lymphocytic thyroiditis.

CLINICAL AND PATHOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF ASYMPTOMATIC ATROPHIC THYROIDITIS: A Condition of Latent Hypothyroidism

Abstract By the Boyden tanned-red-cell test, thyroglobulin antibodies (T.G.A.) have been detected in a large percentage of over 2000 patients admitted to hospital for various diseases. Post-mortem controls in nearly 250 cases with and without circulating T.G.A. have indicated a very high correspondence of these antibodies with the presence of a process of atrophic asymptomatic thyroiditis. This condition, which is to be distinguished from Hashimotos thyroiditis, is prevalent in women and its incidence increases with age. Its development is associated with other autoimmune diseases, with diabetes, and with obesity. Although clinical signs of hypothyroidism are absent, biological signs are indicative of latent thyroid failure.

CORONARY-ARTERY DISEASE IN HYPOTHYROIDISM: Observations in Preclinical Myxœdema

Abstract The relation of coronary-artery disease to hypothyroidism has been investigated in 87 patients with clinical myxœdema and in 25 necropsies on patients who died with inadequately treated myxœdema. The clinical and the pathological findings were compared with those in matched controls. Independently of sex, age, and associated disorders, spontaneous hypothyroidism strongly favoured the development of coronary-artery atherosclerosis. In untreated myxœdema, however, despite increased atherosclerosis and myocardial ischaemia, the incidence of myocardial infarcts was not increased.

Cytoplasmic fluorescence of thyroid follicle cells after incubation with thyroid stimulating hormone

SummaryUsing the double antibody immunofluorescent technique on guinea pig thyroid sections after incubation with highly purified bovine TSH or with human serum, fluorescence appeared only in the cytoplasm of the follicular cells, pointing to probable fixation of TSH to ergastoplasmic membranes. The observation of nuclear fluorescence was not confirmed.This technique apparently specific for TSH detection in biological fluids was unfit for a precise measurement of TSH concentration.