TOXIC GOITER COMPLICATING DIABETES MELLITUS TREATED WITH RADIOACTIVE IODINE (I131)
- BARKLEY BEIDLEMAN, M.D.
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
Excerpt
Thyrotoxicosis is known to activate potential diabetes mellitus and intensify preexisting diabetes mellitus by increasing the metabolic rate, reducing the secretion and efficiency of insulin, depleting the liver of glycogen, reducing the renal threshold for glucose and increasing the rate of absorption of glucose from the gastrointestinal tract.1
The treatment of thyrotoxicosis in diabetic patients with iodine, thiouracil, 6-propyl-2-thiouracil, external irradiation to the thyroid and thyroidectomy has been shown to increase the stability of the blood sugar level and to decrease the insulin requirements in most cases.2 The effects of radioiodine might be expected to duplicate these results. However, the liver has been shown to collect appreciable amounts of this element, while the pancreas collects slight to insignificant fractions of it.3 Whether or not enough of the usual therapeutic dose of radioiodine is retained in these organs long enough to affect their antidiabetic functions permanently remains to
