Raised serum TSH in hypothyroidism

It is desirable to detect early hypothyroidism of the mildest degree even before conventional tests of thyroid function become abnormal. Serum TSH levels (normal: undetectable to 4 muU/ml) rise in patients with mild hypothyroidism long before serum T4 and T3 levels fall. In the patient described the serum TSH level was 310 muU/ml, while other tests of thyroid function gave normal results. After treatment with thyroxine, serum TSH returned to normal. It should now be accepted that patients with mild hypothyroidism have a raised serum TSH and that thyroid insufficiency can be confidently excluded if the serum TSH concentration is normal. It is thus important to assay serum TSH when suspicion of hypothyroidism is aroused.

Sterilization of soft contact lenses using boiling water in a vacuum flask

The vacuum flask method of using boiling water to decontaminate soft contact lenses is better and less expensive than other ways of using moist heat and can be safely and effectively applied under most domestic circumstances.

Human foetal adrenal 4-ene-3-oxosteroid synthesis: an investigation of (4- 14 C) pregnenolone and (4- 14 C)-dehydroepiandrosterone metabolism using new techniques

Human foetal adrenal slices were incubated with [4-14C]pregnenolone (20 foetuses) and [4-14C]dehydroepiandrosterone (18 foetuses). Product 4-ene-3-oxosteroids were isolated as a group and measured in toto by a double isotope dilution procedure. Production of compounds of the 4-ene-3-oxosteroid fraction was estimated over several time-intervals and relative to the protein content of the incubated tissue.

No conversion of [4-14C]pregnenolone by foetal adrenal tissue to 4-ene-3-oxosteroids was detectable although metabolism of the substrate to other compounds was indicated. Conversion of [4-14C]dehydroepiandrosterone to 4-ene-3-oxosteroids, principally androstenedione, occurred in incubations of tissue from 7 of the 10 male foetuses studied with this substrate, and from 2 of undetermined sex, but not from 6 female foetuses so studied. Testosterone formation from [4-14C]dehydroepiandrosterone was not detectable. There was no apparent variation in 4-ene-3-oxosteroid formation relative to foetal age in the range investigated (approximately 6–20 foetal weeks).

These results are interpreted, in the light of previous studies, as giving credence to the concept of substrate specificity in human foetal adrenal 4-ene-3-oxosteroid formation. The evidence that foetal adrenal androstenedione formation may be sex-dependent is considered, and the implications discussed.

Glaciation in Taylor Valley, Antarctica, Older Than 2.7 Million Years

Potassium-argon dates for three samples of basaltic scoria from Taylor Valley, on the west side of McMurdo Sound, indicate that the basalt, which antedates and postdates major glaciations, is at least 2.7 million years old.