Serum Content of Thyrotrophic Hormone in Human Thyroiditis: Low TSH Levels with High Radioiodine Uptake in Mild Autoimmune Thyroiditis

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Abstract
Serum TSH values were measured in 24 patients with auto-immune thyroiditis and in 5 patients with other thyroid disorders by an in vitro bio-assay dependent upon the release of iodide from guinea pig thyroid slices. This was correlated with histologic examination of thyroid needle biopsies and various indices of thyroid function. Contrary to expectation, it was found that patients with mild goitrous lymphoid thyroiditis having an abnormally avid I131 uptake tended to have a depressed serum TSH content, while in patients with struma lymphomatosa having a normal or low iodine uptake the TSH levels were high. It is suggested that in mild thyroiditis with good colloid stores pituitary TSH secretion is partly suppressed by the release of iodinated proteins from injured acini, and that the excessive iodine uptake in some cases of thyroiditis is due either to an intense acinar regeneration or to a metabolic stimulus imparted to the thyroid cells by the inflammatory process itself.

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