LIVER INJURY IN THYROTOXICOSIS AS EVIDENCED BY DECREASED FUNCTIONAL EFFICIENCY

Abstract

It has long been known that injury to the liver may occur in severe cases of thyrotoxicosis and the appearance of jaundice has been looked on as a grave prognostic sign; but that liver injury is present with any considerable frequency or that it plays any important consistent rôle in the disease has scarcely been considered. It has been suggested,¹ however, that the decreased glucose tolerance occurring in cases of thyrotoxicosis, a phenomenon not as yet adequately explained, might be the result of damage to the liver. With this possibility in mind we have made a combined study of the functional efficiency of the liver and of the glucose tolerance in cases of thyrotoxicosis² to determine whether damage to the liver occurs with any important frequency in this disease and whether it bears any relation to the glucose tolerance. Results of this study show that injury to the liver occurs