[Presence of ophthalmopathy in all cases of Basedow disease?]

In order to evaluate the frequency of ophthalmopathy in Graves' disease, we used a progression criterion, the variation of the eyeball protrusion, in a group of 145 patients initially examined at the time when thyrotoxicosis was diagnosed, before any treatment. By the means of a systematic measure of the protrusion with the Hertel's exophthalmometer at every consultation, we calculated for each patient the variation of protrusion (delta PO) between each annual mean value and the initial value. The mean survey was 6.4 years (range 1-18 years). For the whole group, we observed, after a slight increase (0.3 mm) during the first year, a progressive decrease, which reached about 4 mm at the 12th year and kept an afterwards (p < 0.01 at 3 years; p < 0.001 afterwards). The percentage of cases in which the decrease was significant related to the initial value (> or = 2 mm) rose regularly to reach 100% at the 16th year. These results seem to give evidence of the constant nature of ophthalmopathy at the initial stage of Graves' hyperthyroidism.