Graves Disease Treatment of Graves Disease First described by Sir Robert Graves in the early 19th century, Graves’ disease is one of the most common of all thyroid problems. It is also the leading cause of hyperthyroidism, a condition in which the thyroid gland produces excessive hormones.

Graves’ disease is a thyroid disorder characterized by goitre, exophthalmos, and hyperthyroidism. It is caused by an antibody-mediated auto-immune reaction as to form anti-TSH-Receptor antibody. However, the trigger for this reaction is still unknown. It is the most common cause of hyperthyroidism in the world, and the most common cause of general thyroid enlargement in developed countries Graves’ Disease is a type of autoimmune disease that causes over-activity of the thyroid gland, causing hyperthyroidism. This over-activity is also sometimes called “toxic diffuse goiter.” The thyroid gland helps set the rate of metabolism, which is the rate at which the body uses energy. When the thyroid is too active, it makes more thyroid hormones than the body needs. High levels of thyroid hormones can cause side effects such as weight loss, rapid heart rate and nervousness.

Causes of Graves Disease

Graves disease is the most common cause of hyperthyroidism. The production of thyroid hormone is increased, causing a wide range of symptoms from anxiety and restlessness to insomnia and weight loss. In addition, the eyeballs may begin to stick out (exophthalmos), causing eye irritation and tearing.In Graves’ disease, your immune system mistakenly attacks your thyroid gland, but instead of destroying the gland, an antibody called thyrotropin receptor antibody (TRAb) stimulates the thyroid to make excessive amounts of thyroid hormone. Doctors aren’t sure what triggers this problem, but they do know that the immune system is involved. In Grave’s disease patients, they find antibodies specifically designed to stimulate the thyroid. It has a familial tendency. The disease is characterized by the formation of autoantibodies that bind to receptors in thyroid cell membranes and stimulate the gland to hyperfunction.

What are the symptoms of Graves Disease Tremors (fine trembling of the hands and fingers) Changes in menstrual patterns (usually lighter flow, less frequent periods)The thyroid gland grows larger (goiter) as it produces more and more hormone. Common symptoms of hyperthyroidism include weight loss, nervousness, irritability, sweating, dislike of hot weather, shakiness, and rapid pulse. About 50% of patients have red, watery, bulging eyes (the actor Marty Feldman had a severe case).

How is Graves’ disease treated?

Radioactive iodine (I-131), which destroys part or all of the thyroid gland and renders it incapable of overproducing thyroid hormone; orSubtotal thyroidectomy, in which a surgeon removes most of the thyroid gland and renders it incapable of overproducing thyroid hormone.Beta blockers. These medications, which include propranolol (Inderal), atenolol (Tenormin), metoprolol (Lopressor) and nadolol (Corgard), often relieve hyperthyroid signs and symptoms, such as a rapid heart rate, nervousness and tremors. These medications aren’t a cure for Graves’ because your body will still produce too much thyroxine, but beta blockers block some of the action of the thyroid hormone. Beta blockers are often used in conjunction with other forms of treatment.Anithyroid Drugs (ATD’s) This is the route that I chose. The drugs inclue Methimazole, and PTU. I chose PTU. These medications stop the thyroid from overproducing hormones, it’s the excess of hormone that’s causing the thyrotoxicosis.

Graves’ disease is named after the Irish physician who described several cases in the London Medical Journal in 1835. In some cases, Graves’ disease goes into remission or disappears completely after several months or years. Similar antibodies may also attack the tissues in the eye muscles and in the pretibial skin (the skin on the front of the lower leg). There’s also a genetic influence contributing to Graves’ disease and it can run in families. In the case of Graves’ disease, the body sees the thyroid gland as the foreign object and produces antibodies that attack the thyroid gland. This will often (but not in all cases) cause the thyroid gland to become over active. Graves’ eye disease is currently believed to be due to a similar autoimmune reaction. Graves’ disease can have an effect on many parts of the body such as the nervous system, eyes, skin, hair/nails, lungs, digestive system, muscles/bones and reproductive system. Although many patients with Graves’ disease have redness and irritation of the eyes at some time, less than 1% ever develop enough inflammation of the eye tissues to cause serious or permanent trouble. Patients who have severe eye symptoms may benefit from visiting an eye doctor. Graves’ disease is rarely fatal, and people seldom get extremely ill because of it.

Causes of Graves’ disease

The common causes and risk factor’s of Graves’ disease include the following:

An autoantibody (called thyroid stimulating immunoglobulin, TSI) that acts like thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and that causes the thyroid gland to produce excess thyroid hormone.

Toxic multinodular goiter.

Toxemia of pregnancy.

Iodine excess.

Discontinuation of antithyroid medication.

Excessive thyroid medication given to hypothyroid sufferers.

Symptoms of Graves’ disease

Some sign and symptoms related to Graves’ disease are as follows:

Muscle weakness.

Heat intolerance.

Blurred or double vision.

Nervousness & irritability.

Weight loss.

Increased appetite.

Dislike of hot weather.

Itching.

Weak leg muscles.

Lighter menstrual flow.

Nervousness.

Sweating.

Increased eye tearing.

Infrequent or absent menstrual periods.

Treatment of Graves’ disease

Here is list of the methods for treating Graves’ disease:

Your doctor will prescribe either methimazole (Tapazole) or propylthiouracil (PTU) pills. These drugs act to prevent the thyroid from manufacturing the thyroid hormone.

Anti-thyroid drugs which inhibit production or conversion of the active thyroid hormone.

Surgical removal of most of the thyroid gland is the other alternative for severe cases of Graves’ disease.

Fevers are treated with cooling measures and antipyretics.

Another medication, propranolol, is a beta-blocker that helps relieve the symptoms of Graves’ disease including rapid heart rate, tremor, sweating and anxiety.

Radioactive iodine therapy: This is an alternative if drug treatment fails.

Iodinated contrast agents can also provide effective treatment for hyperthyroidism of any cause.

Graves Disease: A form of hyperthyroidism where the thyroid gland produces too much thyroxine which results in various symptoms such as goiter, protruding eyes and skin disorders. More detailed information about the symptoms, causes, and treatments of Graves Disease is available below.

Causes Graves’ Disease

Graves’ disease is caused by a malfunctioning of the immune system. Antibodies that usually protect the body against infections, viruses and bacteria, attack the thyroid gland.

The thyroid gland, in turn, produces excess thyroid hormone. It is not known what causes the immune system to attack the thyroid gland. A combination of factors such as heredity, sex, age, stress, smoking, and radiation have been implicated as possible triggers for Graves’ disease.

Graves disease is an autoimmune disorder that is more common in middle-aged women than in any other group of people. The symptoms of Graves disease are caused by hyperthyroidism or overactive thyroid gland, which produces more thyroid hormones than the body can handle. It is not known how the thyroid gland becomes overactive, however. So the exact cause of Graves disease cannot be pinpointed.

Graves’ disease symptoms

Anxiety

Irritability

Difficulty sleeping

Graves’ ophthalmopathy

It’s also fairly common for your eyes to exhibit mild signs of a condition known as Graves’ ophthalmopathy. In Graves’ ophthalmopathy, your eyeball bulges out past its protective orbit (exophthalmos). This occurs as tissues and muscles behind your eye swell and cause your eyeball to move forward. Because your eye is so far forward, the front surface of your eye can become dry. Cigarette smokers with Graves’ disease are more likely to have eye problems.

Thyroid hormone has been recognized as an important factor in brain function, so either too much or too little causes malfunction. In a few patients, the emotional pattern is that of mild euphoria. In others, profound fatigue or weakness may be the most noticeable symptom. The mind is often very active, and the patient may have insomnia. Rarely, patients develop visual or auditory hallucinations or a frank psychosis. The latter may not completely clear up after thyrotoxicosis has been treated, but may result from an underlying condition existing before the Graves’ disease.

Treatment of Graves’ disease

Here is list of the methods for treating Graves’ disease:

Your doctor will prescribe either methimazole (Tapazole) or propylthiouracil (PTU) pills. These drugs act to prevent the thyroid from manufacturing the thyroid hormone.

Anti-thyroid drugs which inhibit production or conversion of the active thyroid hormone.

Surgical removal of most of the thyroid gland is the other alternative for severe cases of Graves’ disease.

The choice of modality for initial treatment of Graves’ disease is based on symptoms, individual preference, and the experience of the health care provider. In North America, radioactive iodine is often the first treatment of choice whereas in Europe, the initial choice for treatment is antithyroid drugs.

Many of the treatment modalities for Graves’ disease render the thyroid gland non-functional and lifetime replacement with synthetic thyroid hormone is required. Some studies indicate that regardless of the treatment chosen, approximately 50% of patients remain hypothyroid (low levels of thyroid hormone) even 10 years after treatment.

Graves’ disease is named after the Irish physician who described several cases in the London Medical Journal in 1835. In some cases, Graves’ disease goes into remission or disappears completely after several months or years. Similar antibodies may also attack the tissues in the eye muscles and in the pretibial skin (the skin on the front of the lower leg). There’s also a genetic influence contributing to Graves’ disease and it can run in families. In the case of Graves’ disease, the body sees the thyroid gland as the foreign object and produces antibodies that attack the thyroid gland. This will often (but not in all cases) cause the thyroid gland to become over active. Graves’ eye disease is currently believed to be due to a similar autoimmune reaction. Graves’ disease can have an effect on many parts of the body such as the nervous system, eyes, skin, hair/nails, lungs, digestive system, muscles/bones and reproductive system. Although many patients with Graves’ disease have redness and irritation of the eyes at some time, less than 1% ever develop enough inflammation of the eye tissues to cause serious or permanent trouble. Patients who have severe eye symptoms may benefit from visiting an eye doctor. Graves’ disease is rarely fatal, and people seldom get extremely ill because of it.

Causes of Graves’ disease

The common causes and risk factor’s of Graves’ disease include the following:

An autoantibody (called thyroid stimulating immunoglobulin, TSI) that acts like thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and that causes the thyroid gland to produce excess thyroid hormone.

Toxic multinodular goiter.

Toxemia of pregnancy.

Iodine excess.

Discontinuation of antithyroid medication.

Excessive thyroid medication given to hypothyroid sufferers.

Symptoms of Graves’ disease

Some sign and symptoms related to Graves’ disease are as follows:

Muscle weakness.

Heat intolerance.

Blurred or double vision.

Nervousness & irritability.

Weight loss.

Increased appetite.

Dislike of hot weather.

Itching.

Weak leg muscles.

Lighter menstrual flow.

Nervousness.

Sweating.

Increased eye tearing.

Infrequent or absent menstrual periods.

Treatment of Graves’ disease

Here is list of the methods for treating Graves’ disease:

Your doctor will prescribe either methimazole (Tapazole) or propylthiouracil (PTU) pills. These drugs act to prevent the thyroid from manufacturing the thyroid hormone.

Anti-thyroid drugs which inhibit production or conversion of the active thyroid hormone.

Surgical removal of most of the thyroid gland is the other alternative for severe cases of Graves’ disease.

Fevers are treated with cooling measures and antipyretics.

Another medication, propranolol, is a beta-blocker that helps relieve the symptoms of Graves’ disease including rapid heart rate, tremor, sweating and anxiety.

Radioactive iodine therapy: This is an alternative if drug treatment fails.

Iodinated contrast agents can also provide effective treatment for hyperthyroidism of any cause.

The most common form of hyperthyroidism is Graves’ disease. In newborns, the most common cause of an overactive thyroid is called neonatal Graves disease, which can be life threatening. However, hyperthyroidism rarely occurs in children and adolescents. It is named after Robert Graves, the 19th century Irish physician who first discovered the condition. In Graves’ disease, the thyroid gland in the neck is diffusely enlarged and hyperactive, producing excessive thyroid hormones. Graves’ disease can have an effect on many parts of the body such as the nervous system, eyes, skin, hair/nails, lungs, digestive system, muscles/bones and reproductive system.

Graves disease can run in families. The rate of concordance for Graves disease is about 20% among monozygotic (identical) twins, and the rate is much lower among dizygotic (nonidentical) twins, indicating that genes make only a moderate contribution to the susceptibility to Graves disease. No single gene is known to cause the disease or to be necessary for its development. There are well-established associations with certain HLA types. Linkage analysis has identified gene loci on chromosomes 14q31, 20q11.2, and Xq21 that are associated with susceptibility to Graves disease.

Causes

Graves’ disease involves the immune system of the body. Normally, the immune system protects you from infection and abnormal body cells by recognizing and destroying cells using antibodies, which are produced by blood cells known as lymphocytes. In Graves’ disease, the lymphocytes in the body’s immune system produce antibodies that actually attack the body’s own tissue instead of protecting. Due to a result of this attack, the antibodies cause the thyroid gland to overproduce thyroid hormones.

Symptoms

Classic symptoms include goiter (an enlarged thyroid), nervousness, heat intolerance, weight loss despite increased appetite, sweating, diarrhea, tremor, and palpitations.

Abnormally protruding eyeballs are a classic sign but don’t occur in all cases.

Treatment

Currently there is no treatment available to halt production of the antibodies that cause hyperthyroidism. However, there are three courses of study of treatment available to assist Graves’ disease patients have more normal grades of thyroid internal secretion and to command their symptoms. Anti-thyroid drugs are utilized to diminish the production of thyroid internal secretion. This treatment will consequence in prolonged remittal of the disease in about 20 to 30 percentage of patients and usually those with milder disease at the beginning of treatment.

Anti-thyroid drugs which inhibit production or conversion of the active thyroid hormone.

Surgical removal of most of the thyroid gland is the other alternative for severe cases of Graves’ disease.

Fevers are treated with cooling measures and antipyretics.

Radioactive iodine. The radioactive iodine damages thyroid cells, shrinking and eventually destroying the thyroid gland in order to reduce hormone levels. Like surgery, this condition usually leads to hypothyroidism, so that thyroid hormone supplement medication is needed for the rest of the patient’s life.

Graves Disease: Graves’ disease is one of the most common autoimmune diseases, affecting 13 million people and targeting women seven times as often as … more about Graves Disease.

Graves Disease: A form of hyperthyroidism where the thyroid gland produces too much thyroxine which results in various symptoms such as goiter, protruding eyes and skin disorders. More detailed information about the symptoms, causes, and treatments of Graves Disease is available below.

Causes Graves’ Disease

Graves’ disease is caused by a malfunctioning of the immune system. Antibodies that usually protect the body against infections, viruses and bacteria, attack the thyroid gland.

The thyroid gland, in turn, produces excess thyroid hormone. It is not known what causes the immune system to attack the thyroid gland. A combination of factors such as heredity, sex, age, stress, smoking, and radiation have been implicated as possible triggers for Graves’ disease.

Graves disease is an autoimmune disorder that is more common in middle-aged women than in any other group of people. The symptoms of Graves disease are caused by hyperthyroidism or overactive thyroid gland, which produces more thyroid hormones than the body can handle. It is not known how the thyroid gland becomes overactive, however. So the exact cause of Graves disease cannot be pinpointed.

Graves’ disease symptoms

Anxiety

Irritability

Difficulty sleeping

Graves’ ophthalmopathy

It’s also fairly common for your eyes to exhibit mild signs of a condition known as Graves’ ophthalmopathy. In Graves’ ophthalmopathy, your eyeball bulges out past its protective orbit (exophthalmos). This occurs as tissues and muscles behind your eye swell and cause your eyeball to move forward. Because your eye is so far forward, the front surface of your eye can become dry. Cigarette smokers with Graves’ disease are more likely to have eye problems.

Thyroid hormone has been recognized as an important factor in brain function, so either too much or too little causes malfunction. In a few patients, the emotional pattern is that of mild euphoria. In others, profound fatigue or weakness may be the most noticeable symptom. The mind is often very active, and the patient may have insomnia. Rarely, patients develop visual or auditory hallucinations or a frank psychosis. The latter may not completely clear up after thyrotoxicosis has been treated, but may result from an underlying condition existing before the Graves’ disease.

Treatment of Graves’ disease

Here is list of the methods for treating Graves’ disease:

Your doctor will prescribe either methimazole (Tapazole) or propylthiouracil (PTU) pills. These drugs act to prevent the thyroid from manufacturing the thyroid hormone.

Anti-thyroid drugs which inhibit production or conversion of the active thyroid hormone.

Surgical removal of most of the thyroid gland is the other alternative for severe cases of Graves’ disease.

The choice of modality for initial treatment of Graves’ disease is based on symptoms, individual preference, and the experience of the health care provider. In North America, radioactive iodine is often the first treatment of choice whereas in Europe, the initial choice for treatment is antithyroid drugs.

Many of the treatment modalities for Graves’ disease render the thyroid gland non-functional and lifetime replacement with synthetic thyroid hormone is required. Some studies indicate that regardless of the treatment chosen, approximately 50% of patients remain hypothyroid (low levels of thyroid hormone) even 10 years after treatment.