Antithyroid drug treatment for thyrotoxicosis

Author(s):  
Anthony Toft

The most effective and commonly used antithyroid drugs are the thionamides, including carbimazole and its active metabolite methimazole (not available in the UK). These act by inhibiting the synthesis of thyroid hormones, principally by interfering with the iodination of tyrosine by serving as preferential substrates for the iodinating intermediate of thyroid peroxidase. Oxidized iodine is thus diverted from potential iodination sites in thyroglobulin. The iodinated antithyroid drugs are desulfurated and further oxidized to inactive metabolites. There is also some evidence for an immunosuppressive action which is of doubtful clinical significance as most patients relapse after drug withdrawal. Another thionamide, propylthiouracil, is, in addition, a potent inhibitor of type 1 outer ring deiodinase and acutely inhibits thyroxine (T4) to triiodothyronine (T3) conversion, but there is no good evidence to suggest that this effect is of any clinical relevance. Propylthiouracil tends to be reserved for those patients who have developed an adverse reaction to carbimazole or methimazole.

Author(s):  
Danilo Villagelin ◽  
Roberto Bernardo Santos ◽  
João Hamilton Romaldini

Context: Graves’ disease is an autoimmune disease caused by thyrotropin receptor antibodies (TRAb). These antibodies can be measured and used for the diagnosis, prediction of remission, and risk of Graves’ orbitopathy development. There are three treatments for Graves’ disease that have remained unchanged for the last 75 years: Antithyroid drugs, radioiodine, and surgery. Antithyroid drugs are the first treatment option worldwide and are usually used for 12 - 18 months. Recent reports suggest the use of antithyroid drugs for more than 18 months with better outcomes. This review focuses on two aspects of treatment with antithyroid drugs: The impact of using antithyroid drugs for more than 12 - 18 months on remission rates and the trend of TRAb during prolonged antithyroid drug treatment. Evidence Acquisition: A review was performed in Medline on the published work regarding the duration of ATD treatment and remission of Graves' disease and also ATD treatment and TRAb status during the 1990 - 2019 period. Results: Remission rates are variable (30% - 80%), and many clinical and genetic factors serve as predictors. The long-term use of antithyroid drugs appears to increase remission rates. TRAb values usually decline during ATD treatment, but the trend could occur in two ways: Becoming negative or showing a fluctuating pattern. However, approximately 10% of the patients will remain TRAb-positive after five years of treatment with antithyroid drugs. Conclusions: Antithyroid drugs can be used for long periods with an increase in remission rates, and a gradual decrease in TRAb levels, with the disappearance of TRAb in 90% of the patients after 60 months.


Author(s):  
Mauricio Moreno ◽  
Nancy D. Perrier ◽  
Orlo Clark

Surgical intervention plays a critical role in the management of thyrotoxicosis. Despite this, radioactive iodine is still the most popular treatment modality in the USA. Thyrotoxicosis, the condition of hyperthyroidism, is due to the increased secretion of thyroid hormone, and may be caused by toxic solitary nodules, toxic multinodular goitre (Plummer’s disease), or diffuse toxic goitre (Graves’ disease). Graves’ disease is the condition of goitre and associated clinical features of tachycardia and bulging eyes described by Dr Robert James Graves (1797–1853) in 1835 (1). Understanding the pathophysiology of the condition of thyrotoxicosis is essential in the appropriate selection of surgical candidates and planning the most suitable technique. Generally, accepted indications for thyroidectomy for thyrotoxicosis include: suspicion of malignancy by physical examination (firmness, irregularity, or attachment to local structures) or by fine-needle aspiration cytology of nodules; pregnancy; women desiring pregnancy within 6–12 months of treatment; lactation; medical necessity for rapid control of symptoms (patients with cardiac morbidity); local compression (pain, dysphagia); recurrence after antithyroid drug treatment; fear of radioactive iodine treatment; resistance to 131I or antithyroid drugs; or thyroid storm unresponsive to medical therapy. Other more relative indications for thyroidectomy also include: large goitres greater than 100 g that are less likely to respond to radioactive treatment and require a large treatment dose of 131I; severe Graves’ ophthalmopathy; poor compliance with antithyroid drugs; children and adolescents; a large, bothersome, and unsightly goitre; amiodarone-induced thyrotoxicosis, in cases when medical treatment is ineffective and amiodarone is necessary to treat cardiac disease; or hypersensitivity to iodine.


2022 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-9
Author(s):  
Astasio Picado Álvaro

Hyperthyroidism is a common disease that affects 0.8% of the population in Europe. It occurs when the thyroid gland produces more thyroid hormones than your body needs. There are several types of treatment, such as antithyroid drugs, treatment with radioactive iodine (131I) and finally surgery, in addition to these treatments, reference is made to a good hygienic-dietary orientation. Objective: to assess from the nursing field the safest and most effective type of hyperthyroidism treatment, including the risk factors to take into account when carrying out these. Methodology: systematic searches were carried out in bibliographic sources of trials and articles published between 2015 and 2021. Including studies that contained data on risk factors for hyperthyroidism. Results: of 426 related articles found, 13 met the inclusion criteria. Total thyroidectomy surgery induced a 26% therapeutic failure rate and 95% radioactive iodine treatment compared to the 19.1% therapeutic failure in antithyroid drug treatment. Conclusion: Despite the verification of the efficacy of all existing hyperthyroidism treatments, antithyroid drugs have greater efficacy and safety than the rest of the treatments studied, in relation to the time and rate of remission. On the other hand, risk factors such as tobacco and female sex are evidenced, which are negative factors when carrying out treatment for hyperthyroidism.


1988 ◽  
Vol 117 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kanji Kasagi ◽  
Yasuhiro Iida ◽  
Hiroto Hatabu ◽  
Yasutaka Tokuda ◽  
Keisuke Arai ◽  
...  

Abstract. Clinical usefulness of thyroid-stimulating antibodies (TSab) and TSH-binding inhibitor immunoglobulins (TBII) for predicting the prognosis in patients with Graves' disease after cessation of antithyroid drug treatment was evaluated, and compared with that of T3 suppression test and goitre size. Among 46 patients who had been euthyroid on a maintenance dose of antithyroid drugs for at least one year and had discontinued taking medicine, 16 relapsed within one year (group 1), 7 relapsed later than 1 year (group 2), and 23 patients remained in remission for more than 1 year (group 3). Incidence of TSab, TBII, T3 nonsuppressibility and large goitre (transverse diameter longer than means of the values for the 46 patients: ≥ 4.36 cm in females; ≥ 4.74 cm in males) determined at the time of discontinuation of treatment was 87.5% (14/16), 56.3% (9/16), 78.6% (11/14) and 81.3% (13/16) in group 1; 66.7% (4/6), 28.6% (2/7), 50.0% (3/6), and 57.1% (4/7) in group 2, and 56.5% (13/23), 24.1% (5/23), 35.7% (8/23), and 26.1% (6/23) in group 3, respectively. All relapsed patients showed remarkable increases in both TSab and TBII activities at the time of relapse. High incidence of TSab in patients remaining in remission suggests that a reduced functional reserve of the thyroid, probably owing to destructive changes and/or shrinkage of the gland, may cause impaired responses to TSab and is involved in the cause of remission. Development of blocking type of TBII was not considered to be a cause of remission. Remission was predictable in all patients with any two of the indices such as negative TSab, positive T3 suppressibility, and small goitre.


1981 ◽  
Vol 97 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.-A. Lamberg ◽  
E. Ikonen ◽  
K. Teramo ◽  
G. Wägar ◽  
K. Österlund ◽  
...  

Abstract. Eleven pregnant women with concomitant hyperthyroidism were treated with antithyroid drugs. At monthly intervals serum thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) were measured with radioimmunoassay, the Sephadex uptake of radioactive triiodothyronine (T3U) determined and the free T4 and T3 indices calculated (FT4I, FT3I). TSH-binding inhibiting immunoglobulins (TBII) were determined by the radiomembrane assay. Serum TSH and T4 were measured at delivery from cord blood and/or from the newborn infants some days after birth. Serum TSH was significantly elevated in one infant. There was an inadequate post-partal rise in serum T4 concentration in this child and in another who showed only a marginal elevation of TSH. The mothers of these infants were given carbimazole in doses of 30 and 25 mg/day, respectively, at the time of delivery. No significant changes were seen in other infants, the daily doses being 20 mg of carbimazole or less. There was no clinical indication of hypo- or hyperthyroidism in any of the newborn. The TBII were positive in most patients and there was a trend of normalization during treatment. No relationship between the dose of antithyroid drug and the level of TBII could be seen. During treatment the dose was adjusted according to the FT3I values. This seems to be an adequate laboratory test for this purpose.


BMC Medicine ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Inns ◽  
Kate M. Fleming ◽  
Miren Iturriza-Gomara ◽  
Daniel Hungerford

Abstract Background Rotavirus infection has been proposed as a risk factor for coeliac disease (CD) and type 1 diabetes (T1D). The UK introduced infant rotavirus vaccination in 2013. We have previously shown that rotavirus vaccination can have beneficial off-target effects on syndromes, such as hospitalised seizures. We therefore investigated whether rotavirus vaccination prevents CD and T1D in the UK. Methods A cohort study of children born between 2010 and 2015 was conducted using primary care records from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink. Children were followed up from 6 months to 7 years old, with censoring for outcome, death or leaving the practice. CD was defined as diagnosis of CD or the prescription of gluten-free goods. T1D was defined as a T1D diagnosis. The exposure was rotavirus vaccination, defined as one or more doses. Mixed-effects Cox regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Models were adjusted for potential confounders and included random intercepts for general practices. Results There were 880,629 children in the cohort (48.8% female). A total of 343,113 (39.0%) participants received rotavirus vaccine; among those born after the introduction of rotavirus vaccination, 93.4% were vaccinated. Study participants contributed 4,388,355 person-years, with median follow-up 5.66 person-years. There were 1657 CD cases, an incidence of 38.0 cases per 100,000 person-years. Compared with unvaccinated children, the adjusted HR for a CD was 1.05 (95% CI 0.86–1.28) for vaccinated children. Females had a 40% higher hazard than males. T1D was recorded for 733 participants, an incidence of 17.1 cases per 100,000 person-years. In adjusted analysis, rotavirus vaccination was not associated with risk of T1D (HR = 0.89, 95% CI 0.68–1.19). Conclusions Rotavirus vaccination has reduced diarrhoeal disease morbidity and mortality substantial since licencing in 2006. Our finding from this large cohort study did not provide evidence that rotavirus vaccination prevents CD or T1D, nor is it associated with increased risk, delivering further evidence of rotavirus vaccine safety.


2007 ◽  
Vol 156 (6) ◽  
pp. 631-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerasimos E Krassas ◽  
Konstantinos Tziomalos ◽  
Nikolaos Pontikides ◽  
Hadas Lewy ◽  
Zvi Laron

Objective: We aimed to test the viral hypothesis in the pathogenesis of autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD). Design: We determined the pattern of month of birth (MOB) distribution in patients with AITD and in the general population and searched for differences between them. Methods: A total of 1023 patients were included in this study; 359 patients had Graves’ hyperthyroidism (GrH) and 664 had Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism (HH). We divided the patients with HH into three subgroups according to their thyroid peroxidase (TPO) antibody titers at diagnosis: low levels (<500 IU/ml), high levels (500–1000 IU/ml), and extremely high levels (>1000 IU/ml). We used cosinor analysis to analyze the data. Results: Overall, patients with GrH and HH had a different pattern of MOB distribution when compared with the general population and between groups. Furthermore, among both patients with GrH and HH, both genders had a different pattern of MOB distribution when compared with the general population and this pattern was also different between genders. Finally, only women with extremely high titers of TPO antibodies at diagnosis and men with low or extremely high TPO antibody levels showed rhythmicity in MOB, with a pattern of MOB distribution different from that in controls. Conclusions: The different MOB seasonality in both GrH and HH points towards a similar maybe even common etiology with type 1 diabetes mellitus and multiple sclerosis, namely a seasonal viral infection as the initial trigger in the perinatal period, the clinical disease resulting from further specific damage over time.


1987 ◽  
Vol 116 (1_Suppl) ◽  
pp. S312-S317 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Benker ◽  
D. Reinwein ◽  
H. Creutzig ◽  
H. Hirche ◽  
W. D. Alexander ◽  
...  

Abstract. In spite of the long-established use of antithyroid drugs, there are many unsettled questions connected with this treatment of Graves' disease. There is a lack of controlled prospective trials studying the results of antithyroid drug therapy while considering the many variables such as disease heterogeneity, regional differences, drug dosage and duration of treatment. Therefore, a multicenter study has been set up in order to compare the effects of two fixed doses of methimazole (10 vs 40 mg) with thyroid hormone supplementation on the clinical, biochemical and immunological course of Graves' disease and on remission rates. Experience accumulated so far suggests that treatment is safe using either 10 or 40 mg of methimazole. While there is a tendency for an advantage of the higher dose within the first weeks (higher effectiveness in controlling hyperthyroidism), this difference is not significant. The impact of dosage on remission rates remains to be shown.


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