AN ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN THE ANOMALOUS ACTION OF LUGOL’S SOLUTION IN EXOPHTHALMIC GOITER1

Abstract

In a sekies of investigations extending over a number of years we have followed a certain working hypothesis, although we realize that other hypotheses have been followed by other investigators. We consider a goiter a thyroid gland enlarged by compensatory hypertrophy and therefore capable of producing more thyroglobulin than the normal thyroid. The distinction of diffuse and adenomatous goiter often fails due to the finding of minute or hidden adenomas in goiters previously classified as diffuse. Kocher, of Berne, Switzerland, would not allow iodine used on his goiter patients for fear of making them all hyperthyroid but Plummer, of the Mayo Clinic, dosed his patients with Lugo’s solution and demonstrated its anomalous action in lowering the basal metabolic rate in exophthalmic goiter. We have shown that thyroglobulin from untreated goiters has a low thyroxine content (Cavett, Rice and McClendon, ’35).