Protein-bound iodine of the blood serum in leprosy.

The protein-bound iodine of the blood serum has acquired clinical importance in recent years because of the development of chemical methods for the detection and quantitative estimation of minute quantities of organic iodine in the blood. Its determination is of value because its concentration usually parallels that of the circulating thyroid hormone. In chronic infections with fever, and in chronic pulmonary and cardiac disease, the elevation of the basal metabolic rate may suggest the existence of thyrotoxicosis, but the amount of serum protein-bound iodine is usually within the normal range. It has long been known that the administration of iodides to lepromatous patients may cause marked exacerbations of the disease (2). Some workers (1, 4), especially Muir, have in the past advocated its use as a provocative with the idea that the reactions would be beneficial, but this view has been generally abandoned. . Serious consideration was given to the question of iodine metabolism in leprosy since, to our knowledge, no previous study of protein-bound iodine (PBI) has been made on patients with this disease. A cooperative investigation of the matter was undertaken in two laboratories, in this hospital and in Washington.