Endocrine Abstracts

The majority of patients with thyroid eye disease (TED) improve spontaneously without any specific intervention. Some have acute sight-threatening complications and most are left with significant disfigurement. Numerous medical treatments have been tried and most do not work. Steroids and orbital irradiation are helpful in some cases, but neither has a major impact on appearance. All patients with TED deserve consideration for rehabilitative reconstructive surgery. The role of...

Thyroid ophthalmopathy can be, in moderate to severe cases, very disfiguring and thereby soul destroying. Even with excellent family support it is difficult to accept such changes in appearance. In the severe acute phase, management is usually non-surgical with medication and/or fractionated orbital radiotherapy. Rarely, orbital decompression is required to save failing sight resulting from optic nerve compression. This surgical procedure is nowadays more commonly performed to...

Patients with thyroid eye disease (TED) often appear distressed. It is probable that several factors contribute to their psychological state, but the predominant components seem to be alterations in visual function and abnormal facial appearance. It is well recognised that people with disfigurement encounter significant difficulties in social interaction. The altered appearance of a patient with TED may lead to a usually negative experience, followed by misinterpretation of th...

I intend to speak about the problems that can occur when there is a breakdown in communication between, in the first instance, patients and GP's and then patients and consultants.I give some examples of cases I have come across and how a self-help group like TED can spend time just listening to patients and working out with them how they can mend any fences that have been broken, and so achieve what we are all working towards - successful treatment....

From a patient's perspective thyroid eye disease is the predominant symptom, and often the eye disease does not revert back to normal even after treatment of the thyrotoxicosis.Thyroid eye disease - is this a life sentence? A patient's experience and viewpoint and an open discussion....

This presentation will describe the case of a 60-year-old woman who,after being hypothyroid for 12 years, developed severe thyroid associated opthalmopathy (TAO) and was found to be hyperthyroid. She had strongly positive anti-TSH receptor antibodies. She developed right optic nerve compression unresponsive to methylprednisolone and requiring orbital decompression at Moorfields Hospital in November 2000. She has subsequently required immunosuppressive therapy for severe TAO af...