Treatment of metabolic insufficiency and hypothyroidism with sodium liothyronine; preliminary report.

Abstract

• One hundred children, ranging in age from 1 to 18 years, of whom 40 had been given a diagnosis of metabolic insufficiency and 60 of hypothyroidism, were treated with the recently discovered hormone, sodium liothyronine. This product, believed to be the ultimately active thyroid hormone, appears to be three to five times as active as thyroxin, yet freer of side-effects. For the cases reported, the initial dose of liothyronine was 5 mcg. daily during the first week, increased to 15 mcg. by the third week depending on tolerance. No medicament was given during the fourth week, which was used as a cyclic rest period to allow for proper control of the individual's response while the therapeutic dosage level is being reached. By the third month a tolerance dose of 50 mcg. daily was usually attempted. The results in both diagnostic groups were good or excellent clinical improvement in over 90%. Metabolic insufficiency, while difficult to diagnose, especially in its subclinical form, may be the result of inefficient utilization of thyroid products at the cellular level rather than an inadequate supply of products from the thyroid gland. This diagnosis, as in hypothyroidism, is best determined by bone-age examination.