Background Grave’s Disease (GD) is an autoimmune disease where autoantibodies through receptor signalling stimulate the thyroid gland peroxidase to produce thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3). Antithyroid drugs (ATD) act by inhibiting peroxidase to catalyse the production of T4 and T3. ATD have severe side-effects: agranulocytosis and liver damage. Withdrawal of ATD therapy is affiliated with a 50% risk of relapsing GD. There is no consensus considering the optimal length of ATD therapy to minimise the relapse risk. Aim To investigate if there is a difference in relapse rate between patients diagnosed with GD treated with ATD for twelve in comparison with 18months of ATD. Method In this retrospective cohort study 72 patients diagnosed with GD at Örebro University Hospital were identified by review of medical records. Among these patients 36 were treated with ATD for twelve months and 36 patients, matched by age to the first group, treated with ATD for 18 months. These groups were followed for 1.5 years and the frequency of relapsing GD was measuredand compared using statistical methods. Result Among patients treated for twelvemonths 30.6% were relapsing at 1.5 yearsfollow up,compared to 16.7% in the 18-month group, p-value 0.165. Conclusion According to the results, this study indicatesthat; to minimise the risk of relapsing GD,patients treatedwith ATDcouldbenefit froman18-month regimen ratherthan twelve months.But the difference was not statistically significant. Hence, question of this study needs to be evaluated further.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:oru-78020 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Hinz, Johan |
| Publisher | Örebro universitet, Institutionen för medicinska vetenskaper |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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