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SINGLE DAILY DOSE SHORT TERM CARBIMAZOLE THERAPY FOR HYPERTHYROID GRAVES’DISEASE
Author(s) -
MACFARLANE I. A.,
DAVIES D.,
LONGSON D.,
SHALET S. M.,
BEARDWELL C. G.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
clinical endocrinology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 147
eISSN - 1365-2265
pISSN - 0300-0664
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2265.1983.tb00593.x
Subject(s) - carbimazole , euthyroid , medicine , graves' disease , endocrinology , antithyroid agent , wolff–chaikoff effect , hormone , thyroid , gastroenterology
SUMMARY Twenty‐one patients with hyperthyroid Graves’disease were treated with carbimazole 30 mg daily, given as a single dose. Propranolol was also given for the first 3 weeks. All became clinically euthyroid with normal serum thyroxine (T4) levels, usually within 1–3 months. Patients with large goitres and raised serum alkaline phosphatase concentrations took longer to respond. In 19 patients a positive thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) response to intravenous thyrotrophin releasing hormone (TRH) developed. Carbimazole was stopped soon after (median time of treatment 18 weeks, range 9–41 weeks) and 18 patients have been followed. Seven of these (39%) have remained in remission from hyperthyroidism for more than one year (median 77 weeks). Carbimazole 30 mg once daily is a convenient and effective treatment for hyperthyroid Graves’disease. Many patients will achieve prolonged remissions if treatment is stopped when serum T3 and T4 levels are in the low‐normal range, usually 2–4 months after clinical euthyroidism has been reached.