ECE2024 Poster Presentations Late-Breaking (77 abstracts)
1Charles Nicolle Hospital, Endocrinology
Introduction: Graves orbitopathy (GO) is an autoimmune inflammation of the orbital tissues and its the most frequent extrathyroidal complication of Graves disease (GD). It typically develops concomitantly with GD, but, it can also precede it or occurs secondarily. We report the case of a patient who presented with GO 40 years after the diagnosis of GD.
Case report: A 74-year-old patient with history of arterial hypertension, type 2 diabetes, total thyroidectomy 40 years ago for GD, was hospitalized in our department for severe GO. The ophthalmological examination of the right eye showed visual acuity of 3/10 with conjunctival hyperemia, and the left eye showed exophthalmos with eyelid innoclusion, conjunctival hyperemia, limited ocular motricity, inferior corneal opacity and superficial punctate keratitis. An orbital MRI was performed, showing a dysthyroid orbitopathy with inflammatory thickening and fatty infiltration of the oculomotor muscles, responsible for bilateral grade 3 exophthalmos and no signs of optic neuritis. The patient was put on general measures and intravenous corticosteroid therapy. The clinical outcome was favorable with regression of inflammations signs and improvement of visual acuity.
Conclusion: This case underlines the variable and often unpredictable nature of GO, and highlights the importance of vigilance for late-onset complications of GD and the need for ongoing monitoring even in patients with long-standing disease management.