Immediate surgery does not result in a better outcome and therefore methylprednisolone pulse therapy appears to be the first-choice therapy.

These data show that at the mRNA level, TSH-R expression is largely present only during the active stages of GO. The active phase is characterized by the presence of proinflammatory and Th1-derived cytokines, whereas other cytokines, among them Th2-derived cytokines, do not seem to be linked to a specific stage of GO.

Objective: Little is known about the long-term effects of Graves' ophthalmopathy (GO) on healthrelated quality of life (HRQL) after the eye treatment is considered to be finished. The aim of this study was to quantify these effects using validated HRQL questionnaires. Design: A cross-sectional follow-up study was carried out in GO patients who had started radiotherapy and/or prednisone treatment between 1982 and 1992. Methods: Between 1998 and 2000 these patients received an HRQL questionnaire containing the SF-36, EuroQol and GO-QOL questionnaires. All patients were invited for a follow-up ophthalmological examination. HRQL scores of the respondents were compared with those of two reference populations of 'healthy' persons and to scores of several other GO populations. Results: One hundred and sixty-eight patients were included; 163 completed the HRQL questionnaire and 154 visited the outpatient clinic. The median follow-up was 11.7 years. A considerable number of symptoms related to GO were found. More than half of the patients had diplopia and 28% had a low visual acuity. Sixty per cent had a proptosis of at least 20 mm. The HRQL scores were considerably better than those of newly diagnosed GO patients (untreated) and GO patients who completed the questionnaire during treatment, but worse than those of 'healthy' persons. Although we did not perform a longitudinal study, we included a selected group of patients who had been treated with radiotherapy and/or prednisone in the Academic Medical Centre of the University of Amsterdam, and though we could not assess HRQL at comparable times after receiving treatment, this is the first study that presents any data on the long-term effects of GO on HRQL. Conclusion: GO has a marked negative effect on HRQL, even many years after treatment. These findings suggest that GO should be considered a chronic disease. Aftercare is needed for these patients after their immunosuppressive and surgical treatments.

No abstract

Increased serum cytokine levels have been reported in patients with autoimmune thyroid disease, but less is known about their levels in patients with Graves' ophthalmopathy (GO). It is not known whether GO is a cell‐mediated or humoral autoimmune disease. We investigated whether serum cytokines are elevated in GO patients and whether the cytokines were Th1‐ or Th2‐derived. In addition, elevated cytokines might reflect the activity of GO, and thus we investigated whether cytokine levels could predict the clinical response to orbital radiotherapy. We studied 62 consecutive patients with moderately severe untreated GO and 62 healthy controls, matched for sex, age and smoking habits. Serum concentrations of IL‐1RA, sIL‐2R, IL‐6, sIL‐6R, tumour necrosis factor‐alpha (TNF‐α) RI and II and sCD30 were measured using highly sensitive ELISAs, in the patients before and 3 and 6 months after radiotherapy. All patients were euthyroid, with anti‐thyroid drugs, before and during the entire study period. All baseline cytokine and cytokine receptor levels were significantly elevated in GO patients compared with healthy controls, except for IL‐1RA. The levels did not correlate with parameters of the thyroid disease, nor with the duration, activity or severity of GO. However, backward logistic regression analysis showed that IL‐6, sCD30 and TNFαRI were able to predict a beneficial response to orbital radiotherapy. We therefore conclude that both Th1‐ and Th2‐derived cytokines are elevated in GO patients compared with its controls. IL‐6, sCD30 and TNFαRI had some value for predicting therapeutic outcome to orbital irradiation, and may thus reflect active eye disease.