ASSAY OF BLOOD AND URINE FOR THYREOTROPIC HORMONE IN THYROTOXICOSIS AND MYXEDEMA1

Abstract

Rogowitch (1) demonstrated hypertrophy of the anterior pituitary body following thyroidectomy in rabbits and dogs as early as 1889. Niépce (2) in 1851 recorded that both man and animals with large parenchymatous goiters had greatly enlarged pituitaries. Boyce and Beadles (3) in 1892 described enlargement of this gland along with colloid in the anterior lobes of the pituitary in cases of human myxedema. This finding was confirmed in 1917 by Hale White; and Wegelin (4) described similar findings in a case of cachexia thyreo priva. Degener (5), Kojima (6) and Kamo confirmed the findings of Rogowitch in animals. In 1914 Adler (7) demonstrated that destruction of the pituitary in tadpoles depressed metamorphosis and the development of the thyroid gland. Allen (8) and Smith (9) in 1916 independently studied the same relationship in tadpoles. Gudernatch (10) had described the rôle of the thyroid hormone in metamorphosis in 1912 and it was therefore logically suspected that the inhibition of etamorphosis following pituitarectomy was in some way related to secondary diminution in thyroid function. Allen’s work (11) in 1921 indicated that pituitary transplants induced premature metamorphosis following thyroidectomy only if some residual tissue was present.