Amidst the wide range of social, political, and scientific developments that are presently capturing our attention, the year 1980 will quietly mark the centennial anniversary of the first report of gross anatomical findings in the heart of patients with myxedema by Sir William Ord.1 The celebration of this event would hardly receive notice in a modern medical journal were it not for a remarkable resurgence of interest in the study of the heart as a target organ for thyroid hormone action. This welcomed new trend results from the creative application of seemingly unrelated advances in the disciplines of endocrinology and cardiology. By combining radioimmunoassay techniques for measurement of thyroid function with the versatility of echocardiography and systolic time intervals as noninvasive tools for the assessment of functional and structural cardiac alterations, investigators are rapidly adding to our understanding of hypothyroid heart disease. The study by Hayford et al in