Thyroid blood flow rate in man. Electromagnetic flowmetry during operation in euthyroid normal gland, nontoxic goiter, and hyperthyroidism

Abstract

Human thyroid blood flow rate (TBF) was measured during operations by electromagnetic flowmetry in 75 euthyroid patients with normal thyroid tissue, nodular goiter, or solitary adenoma, and in 22 hyperthyroid patients with diffuse or nodular goiter. Blood flow rate was measured in one to four of the thyroid arteries. No difference in blood flow rate was seen between the left and right lobes. The slight difference found between the inferior and superior arteries was not significant. I n each subject, total TBF was calculated as 4 times the mean of the recorded blood flow in the single arteries. The total TBF was 31 (9–109) ml/min (inner 95 percentile range) in euthyroid patients, similar in all 3 groups. This is less than in most earlier reports. The relativeTBF was 1.2 (0.4–3.8) ml/min/g thyroid tissue in normal thyroid tissue and 0.6 (0.1–3.7) ml/min/g in nontoxic nodular goiter (pp<0.001), despite preoperative treatment giving euthyroidism. Similar TBF rates were found in 3 hyperthyroid patients given propranolol preoperatively. Electromagnetic flowmetry is applicable to study thyroid blood flow rate. Human TBF shows considerable interindividual variations, which must be kept in mind when studying directly the rate of thyroid hormone secretion from arteriovenous gradients.