INHIBITION OF A CERVICAL THYROID GLAND BY A FUNCTIONING STRUMA OVARII

Abstract

THE purpose of this report is to present evidence suggesting that the endogenous secretion products of a functioning struma ovarii may inhibit the function of a normal cervical thyroid. In the past the inhibition of the normal thyroid by the ingestion of thyroid substance has been measured by using only one of the following assays of thyroid function: the basal metabolic rate (1), the level of serum protein-bound iodine (2), or the ability of the thyroid to concentrate radioactive iodine (3). In this investigation, all three methods of assaying thyroid activity were utilized in the study of a patient after the removal of a struma ovarii. CASE REPORT K.F., a 48-year-old white housewife, was treated in January 1950, for an attack of acute pyelitis. During this illness she noted the onset of palpitation and her physician made a clinical diagnosis of auricular fibrillation. The cardiac irregularity disappeared coincident with the administration of digitalis and the subsidence of the renal infection. At this time a large pelvic mass was palpated. X-ray examination of the urinary tract by intravenous pyelography revealed a large calculus along the course of the right ureter, a right hydronephrosis, and no left kidney shadow.