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Article
December 1983

Pleural Effusion With Myxedema

Author Affiliations

Farmington, Mich

Arch Intern Med. 1983;143(12):2334. doi:10.1001/archinte.1983.00350120136034

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Abstract

To the Editor.  —In the July Archives (1983;143:1458-1460), Brown et al reported a case of pleural effusions in a 27-year-old woman who had myxedema. This was the earliest age of this occurrence and only the 14th case found in their search of the literature. I wish to report another case that occurred at an even younger age.

Report of a Case.  —A 22-year-old woman was hospitalized due to the abrupt onset of right upper quadrant abdominal pain. Roentgenograms showed nonvisualization of the gallbladder. Surgery was planned, but it was cancelled when a chest roentgenogram showed cardiomegaly and bilateral pleural effusions. Sinus bradycardia and ST-T abnormalities were present on the ECG. A triiodothyronine (T3) uptake was 34% (normal, 35% to 45%), the serum thyroxine (T4) level was 2.5 μg/dL (normal, 4.5 to 13.0 μg/dL), and the thyroid-stimulating hormone level was 92 μU/mL (normal, 0 to 8 μU/mL).Findings from

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