Endocrine Abstracts

Thyroid dermopathy or pretibial myxedema (PTM) is a rare extrathyroidal manifestation of Graves’ disease with diverse presentations. Therefore, information on the clinical data of PTM patients is scarce. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the clinical features of patients with thyroid dermopathy and Graves’ disease. A total of 43 patients with pathologically confirmed PTM were retrospectively recruited. According to the diagnosis, the clinical data and laboratory findings were reviewed and analyzed. The mean age at diagnosis of PTM was 54.4 years (range 30–67 years). Diffuse form of the PTM was the most dominant (48.8%), followed by the plaque (27.9%) nodule (18.7%) and elephantiatic (4.6%) variants. All the patients had pretibial distribution of the lesions, 90.6% of them experienced bilateral allocation of dermopathy. The majority of the patients had Graves ophthalmopathy. Mild form was present in 55.8%, moderate in 18.6%, and severe in 9.3%; 88.8% had ophthalmopathy before manifesting PM. The majority of the patients had high levels of anti-TSH receptor antibodies. There was no correlation between anti-TSH receptor antibodies levels and the severity of PTM. Development of pretibial myxedema was usually late, the duration between the onset of Graves’ disease and PTM was 5.2 years on average (1–7 years). The later after the diagnosis of hyperthyroidism diagnosis of PTM was made the more severe form of thyroid dermopathy occurred (P<0.05). Exact clinical features on every particular form of PTM remains to be determined on larger groups of patients.