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Inverse Relation between Iodine Intake and Thyroid Blood Flow: Color Doppler Flow Imaging in Euthyroid Humans

Department of General Internal Medicine, University Hospital Leiden
Department of Radiology, University Hospital Leiden
the Department of Human and Animal Physiology, Agricultural University Wageningen, The Netherlands

Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: A. B. Arntzenius, Department of General Internal Medicine, Building 1, Cl-R41, University Hospital, P.O. Box 9600, 2300 RC Leiden, The Netherlands.

High intake of iodine inhibits iodide trapping, iodide organification, and hormone release from the human thyroid. We investigated whether iodine intake also affects thyroid blood flow, as was suggested by a recent study in euthyroid rats.

With a Color Doppler device we made 14 consecutive Duplex-Doppler registrations of both superior thyroid arteries in 10 euthyroid volunteers during baseline iodine intake (1 week), iodine restriction (2 weeks), return to baseline (1 week), and iodine excess (1 week; 80 µmol sodium iodide/day). Vessel diameters and mean flow velocity were measured on videotape recordings by a "blinded" observer.

Baseline iodide excretion was 0.88 ± 0.38 (±SD) µmol/day. Mean flow velocity was 13.9 ±4.1 cm/s, and vessel diameter was 1.07 ± 0.22 mm. Blood flow was 7.7 ± 3.8 mL/min • superior thyroid artery. During the low iodine diet, excretion dropped to 0.49 ± 0.16 µmol/day, and blood flow increased to 11.0 ± 5.0 mL/min (P < 0.001), remaining elevated (10.3 ± 4.4 mL/min) during the second baseline diet. During high iodide intake, blood flow averaged 5.8 ± 3.4 mL/min (P < 0.001), and the expected decrease in thyroid hormone levels and increase in TSH were seen. We conclude that thyroid blood flow responds inversely, and independently from TSH, to changes in iodine intake in euthyroid humans.

Received January 28, 1991.

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