THE IODINE-DEFICIENT HUMAN THYROID GLAND. A PRELIMINARY REPORT*†

Abstract
A cooperative study of the physiology of the I-deficient human thyroid gland was conducted in the Province of Mendoza, Argentina, an area long recognized as one of intense iodide deficiency and goiter endemicity. A characteristic of these glands was found to be avidity for iodide, and a rapid turn over of iodide with a highly developed reutilization mechanism. There seemed to be no renal adaptatative mechanism for the preservation of iodide. The glands were unusually unresponsive to administered iodide in small to large daily supplements, but involution seemed to follow the use of desiccated thyroid.