HYPOTHYROIDISM IN CHILDHOOD. II. SENSITIVITY TO THYROID MEDICATION AS MEASURED BY THE SERUM CHOLESTEROL AND THE CREATINE EXCRETION1

Abstract

IN THE FIRST PAPER of this series, the writers (i) pointed out the difficulties involved in diagnosing hypothyroidism in the untreated child by a study of the basal metabolic rate, serum cholesterol and ereatine excretion. It was shown that the measurement of the basal caloric requirement was often impossible in children, and that, even when it could be measured accurately, the determination of the deviation from the normal was often an unsatisfactory means of diagnosis. Although the concentration of serum cholesterol was high in many untreated hypothyroid children, in some cases it was within the normal range. The amount of creatine excreted by hypothyroid children was usually small, but the output was just as small in many normal children of the same age. Magnus-Levy (2) first demonstrated that hypothyroid patients show more marked effects from small doses of thyroid than normal individuals. It is generally recognized that doses of desiccated thyroid as small as ½ grain to 2 grains (32 to 128 mg.) daily...