Title: Evaluation of extraocular muscles in patients with endocrine exophthalmos before and after treatment
Abstract: The authors discuss the behaviour of the eyeball motility and the thickness of the external eye muscles in patients with infiltrative ophthalmopathy. the observations covered 22 patients with Graves' disease, being in the state of euthyroidism. Prior to the beginning of therapy and directly after its termination, all patients were subjected to full clinical evaluation, computerized tomography as well as to examination of the range of eyeball movements. A restriction of all movements of the eyeballs was disclosed, the most serious handicap being recorded in the upward movement (6.5 mm), upward and external movement (8.2 mm), upward and internal (8.5 mm). the tomographic estimation revealed restriction of the straight muscles, inferior and superior, on the average by 3.5 mm, medial by 2.5 mm, and of the lateral straight muscles by 0.5 to 1 mm. Glucocorticoids and glucocorticoids together with imuran were used during the treatment. the therapy lasted from four to nine months. Just after the end of the therapy the clinical picture was found to be improved in 61% of cases, in 16% there was a stabilized pathologic process, while no improvement was seen in 23%. the examination of the range of movement showed a statistically significant improvement (α = 0.01) for the upward movement, as well as upward and external. For the remaining directions the difference was insignificant. the evaluation of the muscle thickness in tomography showed a statistically significant decrease in the thickness of the lateral and medial straight muscles by 0.21 to 0.24 mm at α = 0.05. No significant differences, however, were observed in the thickness of the superior and inferior straight muscles. the authors suppose that the future follow-ups may reveal further, more profound improvement.
Publication Year: 1987
Publication Date: 1987-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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