10 Facts About Graves' disease

Graves' disease, known as toxic diffuse goiter, is an autoimmune disease that affects the thyroid.

Exact cause of the Graves' disease is unclear; however, it is believed to involve a combination of genetic and environmental factors.

Genetic predisposition for Graves' disease is seen, with some people more prone to develop TSH receptor activating antibodies due to a genetic cause.

Graves' disease is an autoimmune disorder, in which the body produces antibodies that are specific to a self-protein: the receptor for thyroid-stimulating hormone.

Hyperthyroidism in Graves' disease is confirmed, as with any other cause of hyperthyroidism, by measuring elevated blood levels of free T3 and T4.

Related searches

Goiter in Graves' disease is often not nodular, but thyroid nodules are common.

Treatment of Graves' disease includes antithyroid drugs that reduce the production of thyroid hormone, radioiodine and thyroidectomy .

Eyelid muscles can become tight with Graves' disease, making it impossible to close the eyes all the way.

Graves' disease owes its name to the Irish doctor Robert James Graves, who described a case of goiter with exophthalmos in 1835.

However, fair credit for the first description of Graves' disease goes to the 12th century Persian physician Sayyid Ismail al-Jurjani, who noted the association of goiter and exophthalmos in his Thesaurus of the Shah of Khwarazm, the major medical dictionary of its time.