STUDIES OF THE CIRCULATION IN PATIENTS SUFFERING FROM SPONTANEOUS MYXEDEMA 1

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Abstract
Myxedema, at a time when the B.M.R. is low, is associated with decrease in cardiac output per min. and per beat, with slowing of the velocity of . blood flow, and with increase in size of the heart, and the work per beat is low and not commensurate with the size of the heart. All these functions approach normal with the administration of thyroid extract and increase in the B.M.R. to normal levels, the situation being a reversible one. Even though the O requirements are decreased, the arterio-venous O difference is increased and is apparently due to a slowing of the circulation rate by the absence of a circulatory stimulating factor, in a similar fashion that Boothby and Rynear-son''s hypothesis explains the increase in circulation in hyper-thyroidism over and above what the increased O consumption demands, by the presence of a circulatory stimulant. The lengthening of the circulation time in myxedema bears a linear relationship to the cardiac output, as well as to the O consumption: the arterio-venous O difference has a linear relationship to the 0 consumption and the B.M.R.

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