Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Cardiothyreosis (CT) is the most frequent and dangerous complication of hyperthyroidism (HT). It is defined as an association of HT with severe heart abnormalities such: rhythmic troubles, heart and/or coronary insufficiency, atrio-ventricular block, and arterial pulmonary hypertension.

Our aim was to study its frequency, in Algerian population, analyze its profile and its response to radical treatment.

Materials and methods: It is a retro- and prospective study (1981–2012) which took into account medical history, clinical examination, routine analyses, hormonal and heart explorations based on heart sonography, electro-radiography±heart MRI and heart scintigraphy.

Results: Among 1680 females HT, 246 had CT=14.64%. We observed 7.93 cases at year. Median age at diagnosis is 59 years (10–96). Five patients (2.03%) were under 30 years old. A high incidence was observed between 1991 and 1996 was probably due to salt iodization program. A personal background of heart diseases was observed in 61.78%. The main heart complications were arythmias (75%) and heart insufficiency (49.79%). The CT complicated essentially a toxic goiter in 68%, and secondary Graves’ disease in 28%. Among 246 females CT, 35 were lost in sight before radical treatment, 172 were treated, 91 had surgical treatment with or without radio iodine and 81 had radio Iodine. Normalization of heart function was observed in 52.45% only.

Conclusion: CT is a life-threatening complication of HT is very frequent in Algerian women, risk factors for poor prognosis were: old age, toxic goiter and Personal or family background of heart diseases.