Nutritional status and endemic goitre.

Biochemical indices of thyroid function and serum-retinol levels in adult goitrous patients from an endemic area in Senegal were compared with those of non-goitrous controls from an area in which goitre was not endemic. The findings (reduced thyroid-binding proteins and reduced serum-retionol levels) could be accounted for by protein malnutrition. They also showed that in goitrous and malnourished patients, the feedback regulation of thyrotropic hormone is governed more by thyroxine than by triiodothyronine and that in such patients serum thyroxine is better than serum triiodothyronine as an indicator of thyroid function.