Abstract
A sequential therapeutic regime was prescribed for 74 thyrotoxic patients. Every patient received carbimazole in conventional doses for 20 weeks; the average time to obtain control was 10.2 weeks. The patients although older than those usually treated with antithyroid drugs (range 38–68 years) showed no difference in the expected rate of control or in the recognised incidence of side effects. Following the carbimazole therapy the patients were alternatively allotted to receive standard or low (50% of standard) doses of 131I, the individual doses being calculated from simple formulae. After the radio-iodine all of the patients were treated with carbimazole for a further 20 weeks.
Review of the patients after completion of the trial and subsequent follow up without therapy shows that 42.1 per cent of the standard dose group remain euthyroid after one therapy dose of 131I, 36.8 per cent have relapsed and 21.1 per cent have become hypothyroid. In the low dose group 44.4 per cent are euthyroid, 47.2 per cent have had a recurrence and 8.4 per cent have become hypothyroid. The results are discussed in the light of current views about the treatment of thyrotoxicosis with drugs and with radioactive iodine.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.