Lorena Pabón Duarte

By Mauricio Alvarez Andrade and Lorena Pabón Duarte

Graves disease is an autoimmune disease, with a genetic susceptibility, activated by environmental factors like stress, iodine excess, infections, pregnancy and smoking. It is caused by thyroid stimulating immunoglobulin (TSI) or thyroid stimulating antibody (TSAb) and is the most common cause of hyperthyroidism with an incidence of 21 per 100,000 per year. Treatment of Graves disease includes antithyroid drugs such as methimazole and propylthiouracil, radioactive iodine therapy and thyroidectomy. Methimazole, an antithyroid drug that belongs to the thioamides class, is usually the first line of treatment due to lower risk of hepatotoxicity compared to propylthiouracil. Radioactive iodine therapy is reserved for those patients who do not respond to antithyroid drugs or have contraindication or adverse effects generated by antithyroid drugs, and thyroid surgery is an option in people with thyroid nodular disease with suspected malignancy or large goiters such as predictors of poor response to antithyroid drugs and radioactive iodine therapy. Multiple factors influence the management of patients with Graves disease including patient and physician preferences, access to medical services and patients features such as age, complications and comorbidities.

Part of the book: Graves' Disease