THERAPEUTIC EFFECT OF TOTAL ABLATION OF NORMAL THYROID ON CONGESTIVE HEART FAILURE AND ANGINA PECTORIS

Abstract

This communication is a report on the therapeutic results of total ablation of the normal thyroid gland in a series of 10 patients with congestive heart failure or angina pectoris. Patient G. F. (case 11), on whom this procedure was first performed, was the subject of a previous report;¹included here is an account of his subsequent clinical course. The clinical observations which provided the rationale for this procedure began in 1924 with the development of an accurate method for measuring the velocity of the blood flow through the lungs.²Measurements in more than 600 subjects demonstrated that, normally, the velocity of flow was directly determined by the metabolic demands of the body.³The metabolic demands of the body were gaged by the basal metabolic rate. When the metabolic rate was accelerated, as in thyrotoxicosis,^3dthe speed of blood flow was proportionately increased; on the other hand, when the metabolic