Articles — antithyroid drugs

Graves’ Disease is the most common cause of hyperthyroidism in the United States. The management of hyperthyroidism is important because if left untreated, the effects result in low quality of life and can be detrimental to one’s health. There are 3 forms of treatment available for hyperthyroidism. Each treatment has advantages and disadvantages. The first form of treatment is radioactive iodine (RAI). This therapy targets the thyroid gland with radioactive iodine, causing the shrinkage and destruction of the gland. In some cases, if destruction of the gland results in hypothyroidism, thyroid hormone replacement therapy is needed to restore euthyroidism. There...

Congenital hypothyroidism (CH) is a deficiency in thyroid hormone production from the moment a child is born. This disorder can be caused by nutritional deficiencies or excesses or other conditions such as thyroid dysgenesis; a partially or fully incomplete development of the thyroid. Unfortunately, it affects more than 1 in 4,000 infants. The thing about CH is that symptoms are often subtle or non-existent at the time of birth because the child often receives thyroid hormone from his or her mother. That means that around that time, there is no real way to tell whether the abnormality is present or not....