the common midline neck masses include thyroglossal duct cyst, lipomas, thyroid tumor or cyst and rarely a midline lymph node, particularly the node just above the thyroid isthmus. thyroid tuberculosis (ttb) is a rare cause of thyroid disease and therefore only occasionally included in the differential diagnosis. in this study we tried to explain the clinical and paraclinical manifestations of ...

In patients with thyroid disease, ocular involvement or thyroid ophthalmopathy is common, irrespective of their thyroid status. A common feature of thyroid eye disease is eyelid retraction, which leads to a classical starry gaze (Kocher sign). Treatment with radioactive iodine (RAI) is a known therapy for hyperthyroidism. However, this treatment may lead to or worsen thyroid ophthalmopathy. We ...

PURPOSE To assess the efficacy and safety of rituximab-mediated B-lymphocyte depletion as treatment for thyroid eye disease (TED). METHODS Prospective, open-label, interventional clinical trial evaluating 12 patients with TED and Clinical Activity Scores (CAS) (VISA [vision, inflammation, strabismus and appearance/exposure] classification) of 4 or greater followed for 1 year after rituximab (...

Thyroid eye disease is a relatively rare condition, with an incidenceof 2.9 to16.0 casesper100 000population per year. The disease mainly affects women. Many patients experience distressing symptoms, and a few develop sight threatening complications. Patients are often young or middle aged and at the peak of their career. Most patients are very aware of their altered appearance. Sight loss canb...

1 NHS Executive. The new NHS: a national framework for assessing performance. London: Department of Health, 1998. 2 Bindman A B, Grumbach K, Osmond D, Komarony M, Vranizan K, Lurie N, et al. Preventable hospitalisations and access to health care. JAMA 1995;274:305-11. 3 Reid FDA, Cook D, Majeed FA. Variation in hospital admission rates between general practices: cross sectional study. BMJ 1999;...

We have sought human eye muscle membrane binding antibodies in patients with Graves' ophthalmopathy using an enzyme-linked immunoassay. Antibodies were found in patients with thyroid autoimmunity irrespective of eye signs, and binding correlated closely (r = 0.94) with binding to skeletal muscle, showing that these antibodies are not site-specific. T cells from patients with thyroid autoimmunit...

Thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO), or thyroid eye disease, is a complex inflammatory disorder of the eye that, as its name implies, is associated with thyroid disease. TAO can be divided into three subtypes: ocular myopathy, congestive myopathy and mixed congestive and myopathic ophthalmopathy. Although the precise pathophysiology of TAO remains unclear it is likely to reflect an autoimmu...