Effect of Thyroparathyroidectomy on the Jaundiced Animal.

Abstract

During the course of some experiments on jaundiced puppies we noted a fairly progressive lowering of the blood serum calcium, which, in several instances fell to the tetany level.1, 2 None of the animals evinced the slightest evidence of increased neuromuscular excitability; on the other hand, some degree of apathy was the rule. It was thought that either some of the circulating biliary constituents or some one or more intermediary products resulting from the perversion of liver function had raised the threshold of nervous excitability, or, that the parathyroids had assumed an added function and were playing some role in keeping the animals out of tetany. Apart from such intercepting factors there was every reason to expect the early precipitation of tetany in very young animals with extensive morphologic changes in the liver, a markedly disturbed intestinal condition and in addition a lowering of the blood serum calcium. To remove suspicion from the parathyroids, a series of animals, young and adult, wer...