Thyroid hormone metabolism in nonthyroidal illness. I. Changes in thyroid hormone metabolism in dogs with experimental myocardial infarction and effect of thyroid hormone administration on their hemodynamics

Abstract

To asses the changes in thyroid hormone metabolism after the onset of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), serum T4 and T3 levels were serially measured for 24 hours after the coronary artery ligation in dogs. The effect of thyroid hormone administration on hemodynamics in these dogs were also studied to clarify the possible usefulness of thyroid hormone therapy in nonthyroidal illness (NTI). Dogs were anesthetized with ketamine using "Micro-Mini" drip administration. Coronary artery ligation was performed in 8 dogs (MI group) Open chest operation was performed in 8 dogs, but their coronary arteries were not ligated and were used as control (cont. group). Blood samples were drawn before and 1, 3, 6, 12, 18 and 24 hours after coronary artery ligation, and serum levels of T4 and T3 were measured using the TDX T4 system and a commercial RIA kit, respectively. Various hemodynamic parameters (heat rate, mean blood pressure, max dp/dt, left ventricular end-diastolic pressure, cardiac output) were measured at the same time mentioned above. All the hemodynamic parameters remained within normal range for 24 hours in the control group. Serum T4 and T3 levels, however, showed slight, but significant decreases due to general anesthesia and open chest operation in the control group. On the other hand, hemodynamic parameters were maintained in the normal ranges only for 12 hours, and gradually deteriorated in the MI group. Moreover, it was remarkable that both T4 and T3 levels were decreased immediately after the ligation in this group, T4 being less than 0.1 micrograms/dl and T3 less than 10 ng/dl. They continued to show the low values thereafter. When T4 (30 micrograms/24 hours), and T3(7, 14 or 21 micrograms/24 hours) were continuously infused intravenously for 24 hours after the coronary artery ligation in 10 dogs, serum T4 levels were maintained in the normal range of the dog (1.5-3.6 micrograms/dl) and the serum T3 levels were increased to the low normal range. However, there were no significant differences in hemodynamic indices between the thyroid hormone treated groups and the non-treated group. These data show that T4 and T3 concentrations decrease prior to the deterioration of cardiac function. Moreover, the present findings also suggest that administration of thyroid hormone has no benefit in patients with NTI associated with low T4 and T3 levels.