D-Tri-Iodothyronine Treatment of Hypercholesterolemia in Patients with Heart Disease

Abstract

INTEREST in the possible pathogenetic relation of hypercholesterolemia to coronary atherosclerosis has led to consideration of the thyroid hormones and related compounds as agents that might be useful in decreasing serum cholesterol. Impetus for such a study stems from the well known effect of thyroid in decreasing the serum cholesterol in patients with hypothyroidism. A highly desirable feature of such derivatives would be a substantial hypocholesterolemic effectiveness with little or no calorigenic or other change. The following constitutes a report of a clinical trial in cases of cardiovascular disease of D-3,5,3′-tri-iodothyronine (detrothyronine, DT3),∥ the optical isomer of the naturally occurring . . .