The Thyroid in Malnutrition By

Methods and Materials The weight of the thyroid was estimated in 125 Jamaican negro infants aged 3 months to 3 years. The nutritional state of most of the infants was easy to assess, but in a few instances it had to be decided by paying attention to the social and dietary history and by comparing heights and weights with percentile values quoted by Stuart and Stevenson (1950). Of the 125 infants, 56 were judged to be malnourished and 69 relatively well nounished. The malnourished infants included examples of kwashiorkor and marasmus, and cases showing features of both conditions. The thyroids were removed soon after death or obtained from refrigerated cadavers. They were dissected clean of fat and connective tissue and weighed on an analytical balance. In order to plot the growth of the gland an additional 25 thyroids from foetuses and infants under 3 months were dissected and weighed. Increasing the time between death and fixation of the thyroid by removing portions of thyroid from the cadaver at varying times led to loss of colloid and desquamation of epithelium in many, but not in all, thyroids. Therefore the histological appearances were studied in a further 50 thyroids removed within four hours of death. These thyroids were not weighed or dissected but fixed immediately in 10% formol-saline to avoid possible artefacts due to autolysis and handling. Paraffin sections were cut at 5[L and stained with haematoxylin and eosin. Other stains were tried but found to be unhelpful. Of these 50 infants, 29 were judged to be malnourished and 21 relatively well nourished.