BLOOD CHOLESTEROL AND THYROID DISEASE

Abstract

Numerous observations on the blood cholesterol in thyroid disease have been made and reported in the literature. References to the more important of these were included in a previous communication from the Lahey Clinic. 1 Since then reports of further investigations have appeared; yet in most of these a relatively small number of cases have been studied and fewer still have been followed from time to time. Levy 2 followed the variations in the blood cholesterol in exophthalmic goiter treated by roentgen rays, and found variable results. Of ten cases, however, six showed a cholesterol value of more than 230 mg. per hundred cubic centimeters. Such findings seem unusual, because in this study less than 1 per cent of the patients with exophthalmic goiter were found to have a cholesterol value of this magnitude. Hilman 3 concluded, as did Epstein, 4 that hypercholesteremia was definite evidence against exophthalmic goiter, but