Related Experiment Videos
Effect of acute renal failure on free thyroid hormone levels in a thyrotoxic patient
M J Hardy1, L Nascimento, S Ragbeer
1Department of Laboratory Medicine, King Fahd Armed Forces Hospital, Jedda, Saudi Arabia.
Nephron
|January 1, 1989
Abstract:
Acute renal failure in a previously undiagnosed case of thyrotoxicosis was accompanied by a rapid and spontaneous decline in thyroid hormone levels. Over a 2-week period, free triiodothyronine and thyroxine fell to the low levels seen in euthyroid patients with end-stage renal disease. Thyrotropin levels remained undetectable throughout, suggesting impairment of the pituitary-thyroid axis at the level of the thyroid gland. This may represent an important beneficial adaptation to severe illness and could explain the virtual absence of hyperthyroidism in renal failure patients.