Patients with Graves' Disease Treated with Radioiodine at Risk of Severe Graves' Ophthalmopathy

Radioiodine therapy for patients with Graves' disease can promote development of severe Graves' ophthalmopathy, thus indicating the need for preventive administration of glucocorticoids in patients with Graves' disease who even display mild ophthalmopathy, according to findings presented at the 10th European Congress of Endocrinology in Berlin in May, 2008.

Sufferers of Graves’ disease include former President George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara. The remarkable coincidence of both spouses developing Graves’ disease at around the same time had sanitary engineers testing the drinking water at the White House and three other Bush residences in 1991.