Thirty-two cases of Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease currently under treatment at Blythedale were studied in order to learn whether protein-bound-iodine determinations would clarify further the often suspected hypothyroid basis of Legg-Perthes disease. The level of serum protein-bound iodine has been found to be a reliable index of thyroid activity. The usual range of protein-bound iodine from four to eight micrograms per 100 cubic centimeters of serum was duplicated in thirty-one of the thirty-two patients here studied in whom a range of 4.4 to eight micrograms per 100 cubic centimeters of serum was found. One variation occurred at a level of 13.2 micrograms per 100 cubic centimeters of serum. There were no recordings in the hypothyroid range.
As an auxiliary study, blood cholesterol determinations were also made. No correlation, either with age or with the level of blood protein-bound iodine, existed. This failure of correlation, however, is not significant, since considerable variability under a variety of conditions is the experience reported in the literature.