[Content and distribution of iodine, chlorine and bromine in normal and pathologically changed thyroid gland tissue]

The neutron-activation method was used to study the content and distribution of iodine, chlorine and bromine in 53 thyroid glands removed from patients during operation and 8 thyroid glands from persons who died in accidents. It has been shown that a statistically significant decrease in the iodine concentration occurs in struma maligna, Hashimoto's disease and a mixed form of endemic euthyroid goiter. The chlorine content did not change. The bromine concentration in all form of thyroid pathology was raised. The highest bromine content was found in "cold" forms--struma maligna, and it exceeded almost by 50 times the rates in the control group. Autoradiographic studies made it possible to establish some peculiarities in the distribution of radioactive and stable iodine in the thyroid tissue depending on its morphofunctional condition. Radioactive iodine gradients in the normal tissue did not exceed 7, in mixed (parenchymatous) forms of the goiter 42.5. The distribution of stable iodine is characterized by a high irregularity. The aplastic forms of struma maligna least of all accumulate and contain stable iodine, their structure being characterized by functional monotony.