Hebdomadal thyroxine.

Abstract

IN this issue of the Journal, Bernstein and Robbins report that 2.0 mg of L-thyroxine given orally as the sodium salt once a week provided satisfactory maintenance therapy for myxedema, and that this regimen effectively inhibited TSH secretion as judged by suppression of thyroid uptake of radioactive iodine in euthyroid persons. Because of the slowness with which circulating thyroxine is degraded (10 per cent per day), and because of its remarkably prolonged metabolic action (two to three months may elapse between discontinuation of thyroid feeding in myxedema and the decline in metabolic rate to the pretreatment value), it is . . .