You see a patient with a goiter. You run some tests and find the patient is iodine deficient. Explain how iodine is used in the production of thyroid hormones. Also, explain how a goiter might form as a result of iodine deficiency. Be sure to include the role of TSH in your response
Iodine atoms are attached to tyrosine molecules. Tyrosine molecules join together forming thyroid hormones as triiodothyronine (with 3 iodine atoms) or thyroxine (with 4 iodine atoms). If the patient is iodine deficient then he cannot produce adequate levels of thyroid hormones and negative feedback to the anterior pituitary does not occur. When the body is deficient in thyroid hormone the anterior pituitary will produce excess TSH trying to stimulate the thyroid gland. Excess TSH will cause the gland to hypertrophy and form a goiter.
You might also like to view...
The muscle found in the walls of most hollow organs of the body is
A) smooth muscle. B) involuntary striated muscle. C) skeletal muscle. D) cardiac muscle. E) voluntary striated muscle.
Which of the male accessory glands encircles the urethra?
A. Prostate gland B. Cowper's gland C. Bulbourethral gland D. Seminal vesicle E. Urethral gland
Which of the following muscles helps to open the mouth (depress the mandible)?
A. Depressor anguli oris B. Sternohyoid C. Digastric D. Zygomaticus major E. Mentalis
Which two important hormones are produced by the islet cells (islets of Langerhans) of the pancreas?
A) epinephrine and norepinephrine B) aldosterone and cortisone C) insulin and glucagon D) cortisol and cortisone E) glucocorticoids and mineralocorticoids