ESPE Abstracts

Background: First line treatment for thyrotoxicosis is thionamide (TA) antithyroid drug therapy. The TA used is usually Carbimazole in the UK. TA can be administered in a relatively large 'blocking' dose that prevents endogenous thyroid hormone synthesis, requiring thyroid hormone replacement (block and replace or BR), or in a smaller dose that renders the patient euthyroid (dose titration or DT). The American Thyroid Association (ATA) recommends DT be...

Methods: Patients commenced 0.75mg/kg carbimazole (CBZ) daily with randomisation to either BR or DT. We examined baseline patient characteristics, CBZ dose, time to serum TSH/FT4 normalisation and BMI Z-score. Results: There were data available from 80 patients (baseline) and 78 patients (61 female) at 6 months. Mean CBZ dose was 0.9 mg/kg/day (BR) and 0.5 mg/kg/day (DT). There was no difference in the time taken for...

Objective: Remission rates in young people with Graves’ hyperthyroidism are 25% or less after a 2-yr course of thionamide antithyroid drug (ATD). Immunomodulatory agents could potentially improve outcome by facilitating immune tolerance. We wanted to explore whether rituximab, a B lymphocyte depleting agent, would increase remission rates when administered with a short course of ATD.Design: This was an investigator-...