Analysis of the clinical-epidemiological profile of patients diagnosed with severe disease seen at an outpatient clinic in Teresina-PI, Brazil

Abstract

Graves' disease (GD) is the leading cause of hyperthyroidism. It is an autoimmune disease, of unclear etiology, but certainly multifactorial and with evident genetic predisposition. This study, in addition to evaluating the clinical-epidemiological profile of patients with DG, aims to identify the age, gender and most affected race, as well as to report the most frequent symptoms and to verify the main indicated treatments. This is a documentary, retrospective, descriptive and quantitative approach, through a survey of 40 medical records of patients diagnosed with Graves's disease treated at a Teresina-pi outpatient clinic from January 01, 2014 to December 31, 2016. Eligibility criteria for this sample included patients of both sexes over the age of 20 years and less than 60 years, and those with a disability of identification or lack of adequate data in the medical records were excluded. It can be identified that the disease has a higher prevalence in the female gender and in an age group of 20 to 40 years. Regarding the clinical manifestations, it was observed that, among typical of the disease, the most prevalent is the presence of diffuse goiter (90%), followed by ophthalmopathy (50%) and in rare occasions the dermatopathy (10%). In addition to these symptoms, nervousness (90%), anxiety (80%), tachycardia (75%), weight loss (70%), heat intolerance (67.5%) and fatigue (60%). Regarding the therapeutic approach, there are three options: antithyroid drugs, radioactive iodine and surgery. In this study, the preference for the antithyroid drug as a first-line therapy was verified.