Iodine lipid enveloped viruses. Iodine probably attacks surface proteins of enveloped viruses, and it may also destabilise membrane fatty acids by reacting with unsaturated carbon bonds. In medicine, a saturated solution of potassium iodide is used to treat acute thyrotoxicosis. It is also used to block uptake of iodine-131 in the thyroid gland (see isotopes section above), when this isotope is used as part of radiopharmaceuticals (such as iobenguane) that are not targeted to the thyroid or thyroid-type tissues. Iodine-131 (usually as iodide) is a component of nuclear fallout, and is particularly dangerous owing to the thyroid gland's propensity to concentrate
Pituitary gland referred to the pituitary gland by only using the (Ancient Greek) name ἀδήν, "gland". He described the pituitary gland as part of a series of secretory organs for the excretion of nasal mucus. Anatomist Andreas Vesalius translated ἀδήν with "glans, in quam pituita destillat", "gland in which slime ("pituita") drips". Besides this 'descriptive' name, Vesalius used "glandula pituitaria", from which the English name "pituitary gland" is ultimately derived. The expression "glandula pituitaria" is still used as official synonym beside "hypophysis" in the official Latin nomenclature "Terminologia Anatomica". In the seventeenth century the supposed function of the pituitary gland to produce