Endocrine Abstracts

The European Group on Graves’ Orbitopathy was established in 1999 in the conviction that a multidisciplinary approach is required in order to make progress in the management of Graves’ Orbitopathy (GO). Consequently, one criterion for EUGOGO membership is the presence of combined thyroid-eye clinics, staffed by endocrinologists and ophthalmologists. EUGOGO nowadays consists of 13 centers in 9 European countries. The group objectives are to contribute towards understanding of the pathogenesis of GO and its management, and to contribute towards education, teaching and training of health professionals involved in the care of GO patients.

After reaching consensus on standardized assessment of eye changes, EUGOGO has published 7 clinical papers on GO (e.g. on dysthyroid optic neuropathy, outcome of surgical decompression, and questionnaire surveys). A consensus statement on management of GO was published in 2008. A number of randomized clinical trials is performed by EUGOGO; the results of the first one on mild GO will be published in 2010.

EUGOGO edited a higly successful textbook on GO. So far four teaching courses have been organized, all overbooked; their attractiveness is attributable to a large extent to life demonstrations how to investigate GO with the help of patient volunteers.

At the occasion of the 10th anniversary of EUGOGO an international symposium on GO was organized in Amsterdam. Here the so-called Amsterdam declaration on GO was signed by 82 organizations in the field of endocrinology and ophthalmology, setting specific 5-year targets focussing on raising awareness on GO and implementing measures to reduce the incidence and morbidity of the disease.