Thyroid gland definition

Methodology. Several radioimmunoassays of human calcitonin (hCT) have been developed In the past 5 years (18-20). Their greatest utility has been In the definitive diagnosis of patients with medullary carcinoma of the thyroid gland (MTC) and, recently. In Identifying family members of these patients who have occult MTC. 

Potassium iodide has been widely used in asthma and chronic bronchitis as an expectorant. There is considerable controversy about its efficacy. It should not be used in adolescent patients because of its potential to aggravate and induce acne and its effect on the thyroid gland. In view of its doubtful efficacy and definite toxicity, it would be preferable if physicians stopped prescribing it as an expectorant. 

Myopathy is the term used broadly for affections of the skeletal musculature, in which the muscular symptoms in no way arise from disordered function of the central or peripheral nervous system. Within this definition are included, therefore, such widely differing conditions as the polymyositis syndrome, endocrine myopathies associated with thyroid gland disorders, and the muscular dystrophies. 

Exposure of rats to cold (0-2°C.) for various periods produces thyroid stimulation, which is definite after 7 days, reaches a maximum after 26 days, but disappears after exposure for 40 days (113). At the time of maximum stimulation by cold, the fixation of by the gland is 2.7 times that in the controls. Separation of the iodine fractions of thyroid at various times indicates that the turnover of thyroxine and the excretion of iodinated products are increased to about twice the normal rates. 

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