Thyroid Hormones in Chronic Renal Failure

Excerpt

To the editor: In their recently published paper Spector and associates (1) report on thyroid function and metabolic state in chronic renal failure. In their uremic patients they found low serum 3, 5, 3'-triiodothyronine (T3) and low serum free T3 in contrast to normal free thyroxine (T4) and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) serum levels. Total serum T4 concentrations were in the lower normal range. They point out the similarity of these findings with the results reported for hepatic cirrhosis and various other severe nonthyroidal illnesses in which serum T3 levels are markedly decreased in spite of normal total T4 serum concentrations.