Calcium Metabolism After Thyro-Parathyroidectomy

The Parathyroid Glands a Review Op the Literature

“…Morel and Eathery (1912) found in the liver following parathyroidectomy what they considered definite lesions that paralleled the intensity of the postoperative symptoms. Stoland (1914) obtained somewhat similar results. Boldyreff (1913) found that the body temperature of warm blooded animals is lowered by complete thyroparathyroidectomy and that by artificial heat it is possible to bring out typical tetanic attacks which in turn are relieved by cooling the animals.…”

“…The cross-circulation experiments of MacCallum (1911) and of MacCallum and Vogel (1913) support the theory that the hyper excitability of the nervous system is peripheral and is dependent upon some change in the character of the blood. MacCallum, Lambert and Vogel (1914), by removing calcium by dialysis from normal blood and passing this blood through an isolated extremity, produced an extreme hyperexcitability of the nerves quite like that observed in tetany; two animals with parathyroid tetany were bled and in one the blood was replaced by normal blood and in the other with dialyzed blood poor in "calcium (otherwise normal) ; the symptoms were relieved in the first but not in the second animal. Marine (1914) also showed that calcium salts have a striking palliative effect on parathyroid tetany and suggested their use as a biologic test for the determination of the presence of accessory parathyroid tissue: in the absence of all parathyroid tissue calcium salts v will not save the animal's life, while in the presence of active parathyroid tissue calcium is very effective.…”

“…Carlson (1912 and 1913) showed that in parathyroid tetany in cats and dogs there are no spasms, contractures, or other evidences of hyperexcitability or tetany of the neuromuscular mechanisms of the digestive tract; even in very severe tetany the movements of the stomach and intestine may be normal; the variation from normal is depression or paralysis; the gastric and pancreatic digestion appear normal but retarded and there is an absence of hunger. Keeton (1914) showed a depression of both total and free acid.…”

“…The experiments of Hoskins and Wheelon (1914) indicate that parathyroid destruction results in an increase of the vasomotor irritability, evidenced by reaction to nicotin, epinephrin, and pituitrin, but that there is no strict parallelism between the external symptoms of parathyroid deficiency and the degree of vasomotor irritability. Simpson and Rasmussen (1914) at first believed that when animals are in pronounced parathyroid tetany, the coagulation time of the blood^is prolonged; in their later work (1916), however, they could find no consistent effect.…”

“…Marine (1913), from his experiments on fowls, believed that their parathyroids are more susceptible to overgrowth than those of mammals. MeCarrison (1914) states that of the offspring of goitrous parentsi a small percentage are born cretins, 63 per cent with congenital goiter, 32 per cent with congenital parathyroid disease, and 33 per cent with normal thyroid and parathyroid glands. In 1915 Harbitz reviewed the literature on parathyroid tumors and reported two new cases, the one an adenoma of the parathyroid with osteomalacia, and the other an adenoma of the parathyroid with paralysis agitans.…”