Influence of dopaminergic inhibition on serum levels of thyrotrophin and prolactin in patients with hypothyroidism before and after prolonged oral administration of TRH
Frey, H.M.; Haug, E.
Acta Endocrinologica 104(2): 183-188
1983
ISSN/ISBN: 0001-5598 PMID: 6415988 Document Number: 211740
Forty mg TRH/day given orally for 3 wk to 8 patients with mild primary hypothyroidism decreased serum TSH from a mean of 4.0 ng/ml .+-. 1.2 (SE) to 2.0 ng/ml .+-. 0.4 (49%), and their mean incremental TSH response to i.v. TRH was equally reduced from 8.6 ng/ml .+-. 2.5 to 4.0 ng/ml .+-. 1.9 (46%). In the same patients serum Prl was 8.2 ng/ml .+-. 2.2 before oral TRH treatment and 6.6 ng/ml .+-. 1.5 (81%) after treatment, and the mean incremental Prl response to i.v. TRH was reduced from 43.5 ng/ml .+-. 5.0 to 35.9 ng/ml .+-. 7.5 (83%). The oral administration of 10 mg of the dopamine antagonist metoclopramide increased mean serum TSH from 0.6 ng/ml .+-. 0.1 (SE) to 0.7 ng/ml .+-. 0.1 (120%) in euthyroid subjects and from 4.0 ng/ml .+-. 1.2 to 5.7 ng/ml .+-. 1.6 (145%) in patients with primary hypothyroidism, and mean serum Prl from 8.6 ng/ml .+-. 0.8 to 109.5 ng/ml .+-. 24.3 (1251%) and from 8.2 ng/ml .+-. 2.2 to 119.6 ng/ml .+-. 45.5 (1460%), respectively. The incremental TSH responses to i.v. TRH increased 2.3-fold in euthyroid subjects pre-treated with metoclopramide, while no change was observed in the TSH responsiveness in patients with primary hypothyroidism following metoclopramide pre-treatment. In the euthyroid subjects metoclopramide treatment had no effect on the Prl response to i.v. TRH. In the primary hypothyroid group metoclopramide pre-treatment caused a reduced Prl response to i.v. TRH in more than 50% of the patients. Long-term TRH treatment decreased the serum levels of TSH and Prl as well as the incremental increases in TSH and Prl to i.v. TRH stimulation in patients with primary hypothyroidism. Long-term TRH treatment did not change the TSH and Prl responses to the dopamine antagonist metoclopramide.