Determinants of thyroid hormone and thyroid-lipid interrelationships in Jerusalem.

In a study of 652 boys and 556 girls, aged 17, and 1,020 men and 575 women from the Jerusalem Lipid Research Clinic, serum thyroxine was higher in females than in males and higher in 17-year-old boys than in men. In most age- and sex groups, thyroxine was highest in Israelis originating from Asian and other Middle Eastern countries and lowest in immigrants or children of immigrants from Western countries. As in other population-based studies, we found a statistically significant negative correlation between thyroxine and triglyceride in adult males and negative correlations between thyroxine and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol in all age- and sex groups. No associations between thyroxine and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol or very low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol were observed.