American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 10, 114-118, Copyright © 1962 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc.

Reduced Serum Lipids After Liothyronine Administration Combined with Diet High in Unsaturated Fat

¹ From the Veterans Administration Hospital, Palo Alto, California

Nineteen patients were given twenty-one trials of treatment (median duration thirty weeks) with a diet high in unsaturated fatty acids and a thyroid hormone, liothyronine. Satisfactory reduction of serum lipid fractions (20 per cent or more) was obtained in nineteen trials with seventeen patients. Mean serum cholesterol values prior to treatment were reduced from 341 mg. per 100 ml. to 248; for total lipids, 1,070 to 784; for phospholipids, 314 to 231. Weight loss was a conspicuous side effect, although not apparently related to the effect on serum lipid levels; possibly it represented evidence of increased metabolism induced by the administration of liothyronine. Use of an unsaturated fatty acid formula diet also proved an effective dietary management for treating patients with duodenal ulcer.

Two separate studies to determine if the combination of dietary management and liothyronine administration exceeded the effects of liothyronine alone failed to show any difference. Both treatment programs reduced serum lipid fractions to a comparable degree. The combined program may have advantages for long-term use, based on observations on four patients in whom only the administration liothyronine was discontinued.