we determined the frequency of clinical thyroid ophthalmopathy in iranian patients. this cross-sectional study was performed at the endocrinology institute of tehran university of medical sciences. all patients with documented thyroid disorders from september 2003 to july 2005 were recruited. eye examinations included evaluation of soft tissue changes, measurement of proptosis, lid width, lagop...

Thyroid associated ophthalmopathy is a constellation of symptoms caused by an autoimmune process involving the orbital tissue. It is common in hyperthyroid patients due to Graves' disease and also reported in euthyroid and hypothyroid Graves' patients with positive thyroid receptor antibodies. But in Hashimoto's thyroiditis, thyroid associated ophthalmopathy is a rarely reported and poorly unde...

The aetiology of ophthalmopathy associated with thyroid disease is unknown. Excessive secretion of pituitary thyrotropin (TSH) had been suggested as a cause of exophthalmos (thyrotropic) (Falconer and Alexander, 195I). However, assays for thyrotropic hormone in patients with endocrine ophthalmopathy failed to reveal an elevation of TSH in the blood either before or during the development of acu...

Graves' ophthalmopathy is an inflammatory autoimmune disease of the orbit, characterized by inflammation and proliferation of the orbital tissue caused by CD4+T cells and orbital fibroblasts. Despite recent substantial findings regarding its cellular and molecular foundations, the pathogenesis of Graves' ophthalmopathy remains unclear. Accumulating data suggest that microRNAs play important rol...

We investigated the lymphocyte characteristics of 77 Graves' disease patients with and without infiltrative ophthalmopathy. Thirteen patients with infiltrative ophthalmopathy without prior antithyroid therapy and 20 euthyroid patients with progressive ophthalmopathy demonstrated decreased percentages of active and total erythrocyte rosette-forming lymphocytes compared to thyrotoxic patients wit...

HTLV-I carriers or patients with HTLV-I associated myelopathy (HAM) are prone to immune-mediated inflammatory disorders. We present a 44-year-old female with HAM who developed Graves' disease. She developed severe Graves' ophthalmopathy shortly after 131I therapy, concurrently with a remarkable increase in TSH-receptor antibody titer. Ophthalmopathy was aggravated in spite of prednisolone thera...

OBJECTIVES To estimate oculometric parameters of Graves' ophthalmopathy in comparison to healthy eyes using digital photography and digital image analysis. INTRODUCTION Graves' ophthalmopathy is the main cause of eye proptosis. Because these protrusions cause clinically perceived distortions in orbital architecture, digital photographs can be used to detect and quantify these changes. METHO...

PURPOSE Graves ophthalmopathy and Graves disease may be caused by the same autoimmune process. An explanation for this may be the presence of autoantibodies reacting with an autoantigen in the orbit and the thyroid gland, like the thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) receptor. The purpose of this study was to see if initial levels of TSH receptor antibodies, known as thyroid-stimulating immunoglob...

Azathioprine is used in the treatment of thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy, but its effectiveness has not been evaluated. In the present study 20 patients with moderately severe ophthalmopathy were recruited; 10 patients received azathioprine and the other 10 matched patients served as controls. During the treatment period (lasting 1 year) and 1 year later, no changes were detected in exophthal...

OBJECTIVE To study mood disturbance in Graves ophthalmopathy. METHODS Forty-eight patients (mean age, 55 years; 40 women and 8 men) with Graves ophthalmopathy from a university-based referral center were classified into two groups, 24 with moderate/severe disease (study group) and 24 with negligible/mild disease (control group). The groups were matched with regard to demographic and medical c...