What is Graves Disease?

Posted on November 25th, 2011 by ma

Graves’ disease is a type of hyperthyroidism caused by a generalized over activity of the entire thyroid gland. The symptoms of hyperthyroidism in Graves’ disease are often the same as those caused by other types of hyperthyroidism. But Graves’ disease is the only kind of hyperthyroidism that has inflammation of the eyes, swelling of the tissues around the eyes, and bulging of the eyes. Rarely, patients with Graves’ disease develop a lumpy reddish thickening of the skin in front of the shins known as “pretibial myxedema”. Graves’ disease is hereditary and is up to five times more common among women than men. Graves’ disease is thought to be an autoimmune disease, and antibodies that are characteristic of the illness may be found in the blood.

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