[Whole-body radiometric study of protein and lipid metabolism in thyroid pathology]

Radiometry of the whole body and its organs was employed to study certain aspects of protein-aminoacid and lipid metabolism in patients with thyroid diseases. Metabolism of human serum 131I-albumin was studied in 12 patients with neurocirculatory dystonia (as a premorbid stage of toxic goiter), in 13 patients with diffuse toxic goiter (in 10 before and after drug therapy) and in 9 controls. 75Se-methionine aminoacid metabolism was investigated in 9 patients with toxic thyroid adenoma and in 13 controls. The body cell mass was determined in 82 patients with thyrotoxicosis by a measurable amount of 40K. These data were compared with those of 249 healthy persons. The assimilation of 131I-oleic acid in the G. I. tract was determined in 6 patients with neurocirculatory dystonia, in 18 patients with thyrotoxicosis (in 5 before and after drug therapy) and in 12 controls. The assimilation of 131I-glycerol trioleate was determined in 6 patients with neurocirculatory dystonia, in 16 patients with thyrotoxicosis (in 3 before and after therapy), in 3 patients with primary hypothyroidism and in 10 controls. An increase in catabolism of labeled albumin, intensification of labeled methionine metabolism at the tissue level, signs of a decrease in the total amount of metabolic albumin in the body were revealed. Intensification of protein metabolism resulted in a decrease in the body cell mass of these patients. After adequate therapy the above indices of protein metabolism in patients with thyrotoxicosis returned to normal. The assimilation of fatty acids and neutral fat was disturbed both in thyrotoxicosis and hypothyroidism.