Kaohsiung Journal of Medical Sciences
Volume 24, Issue 6 , Pages 283-288, June 2008

Age Influences the Severity of Graves' Ophthalmopathy

  • Muh-Chiou Lin

      Affiliations

    • Department of Ophthalmology, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
    • Corresponding Author InformationAddress correspondence and reprint requests to: Dr Muh-Chiou Lin, Department of Ophthalmology, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, 386, Ta-Chung 1st Road, Kaohsiung 813, Taiwan
    • ,
  • Feng-Ming Hsu

      Affiliations

    • Department of Ophthalmology, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
    • ,
  • Youn-Shen Bee

      Affiliations

    • Department of Ophthalmology, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
    • ,
  • Luo-Ping Ger

      Affiliations

    • Department of Medical Education and Research, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Received 14 June 2007; accepted 31 January 2008.

Article Outline

This study compared the ocular manifestations of Graves' disease in different age groups and between genders. This was a retrospective study with a chart review of 210 patients seen in the Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital Ophthalmology Department from 1990 to 2006. Clinical manifestations were recorded, scored, and compared between different age groups and between genders. A total of 77 male and 133 female patients were included. The mean age of the patients was 48.71 years (53.80 for male and 45.77 for female patients). The average ophthalmopathy score was 3.72 (4.51 for male and 3.26 for female patients). Age was positively correlated with ophthalmopathy score (p < 0.01). The male patients scored higher than the female patients, generally and in different age groups, but the difference did not reach a statistically significant level. One hundred and six patients underwent tests for thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor antibody (TRAb); 92 (86.80%) were positive, but the titers did not correlate with the severity of ophthalmopathy. In conclusion, the severity of Graves' ophthalmopathy is correlated with age (r = 0.286). Thus, older patients should be more closely followed up and more aggressively treated.

Key Words:  age , gender , Graves' ophthalmopathy , TSH receptor antibody (TRAb)

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PII: S1607-551X(08)70154-2

doi:10.1016/S1607-551X(08)70154-2

Kaohsiung Journal of Medical Sciences
Volume 24, Issue 6 , Pages 283-288, June 2008

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