Thyrocardiac Disease—Fact or Fancy?

¹ Instructor in Radiology

A review of 55 cases of thyrotoxicosis has been presented. Twenty of these had abnormal chest roentgenograms. The most frequent abnormality was an enlarged aorta, both in its ascending and descending portions. Other less frequent findings were enlarged main pulmonary artery and enlargement of the left ventricle with or without left atrial enlargement. Two patients were in frank congestive failure which responded well to treatment of the underlying thyrotoxicosis. An attempt was made to correlate the roentgenographic findings with the circulatory changes brought about by the hyperthyroid state.

It seems to this author that thyrotoxic heart disease exists as a definite clinical entity.