A COMPARISON OF THE SENSITIVITY OF SOME METHODS FOR DETERMINING THE ACTIVITY OF THYROID GLANDS

Abstract

The sensitivity of 4 methods used in determining the anti-thyroid activity of compounds was compared by studying the dosage of tetra-methyl-thiourea having the same anti-thyroid effect as 50 mg methyl-thiouracil on cockerels. The 4 methods used were thyroid weight, colloid percentage, epithelium percentage, and the relation between inner diameter and number of cells in medial sections of the follicles: d/n-method. With low thyroid activities, all these methods have approximately the same sensitivity, but in the case of high activities only the d/n method gives useful results.