SIZE AND SHAPE OF THE HEART IN HYPERTHYROIDISM

Abstract

Until recently "thyroid heart" was considered to be a definite entity and was admitted without discussion as a member of the group of organic cardiac diseases. This idea is now losing popularity, and the tendency to consider so-called thyroid heart as a simple functional disorder is becoming more and more prevalent. The fundamental reasons for this change are based on experimental proof—pathologico-anatomic, electrocardiographic and roentgenographic, though none of these has been capable of showing definitely the existence of a constant specific alteration in the heart in hyperthyroidism. Thus, Takane¹and Boyksen²have found infiltration or degenerative changes in the hearts of rats intoxicated with thyroid preparations, whereas Goodpasture³found only slight alterations in rabbits under similar conditions, but he admitted that there might exist an increased liability of the myocardium to infection. Rake and McEachern⁴said they considered that the lesions they observed were of no