Diffuse toxic goiter

Diffuse toxic goiter is a very unusual disease of the thyroid gland.  At each reception, endocrinologists meet patients with Based’s disease - at least three to four patients with diffuse toxic goiter are sent to specialized centers of endocrinology each day.

Causes of Based's disease

The cause of the disease is the invalid functioning of the human immune system, which begins to produce specific antibodies - antibodies to the TSH receptor, directed against the patient's own thyroid gland. These antibodies, oddly enough, do not destroy the thyroid gland, but, on the contrary, force it to work very actively. The thyroid gland under the influence of antibodies begins to produce excessive amounts of hormones, which leads to the appearance of symptoms of thyrotoxicosis - thyroid hormone poisoning.

Signs of a common disease

Symptoms of diffuse toxic goiter (Based's disease) are so specific that patients often diagnose themselves, even before visiting a doctor. Heat, sweating, heart palpitations, often - interruptions in the work of the heart, irritability combined with rapid fatigue, weight loss - all these symptoms force the patient to turn to the endocrinologist.

If this also marks a characteristic increase in the eyes - the diagnosis of Based's disease becomes apparent even for the layman.

                                                

All the symptoms of Based’s disease can be divided into several groups:

• ·       related to the defeat of the heart (the appearance of arrhythmia, increased heart rate
• ·       tachycardia, additional contractions of the heart
• ·       extrasystole, hypertension); - associated with the defeat of the endocrine system (weight loss, a sense of heat);
• ·       Violation of the skin (sweating, the appearance of swelling of the legs) and nails (increased fragility);
• ·       associated with disruption of the nervous system (hand trembling
• ·       tremor, muscle weakness, fatigue, excitability, tearfulness);
• ·       associated with disruption of the digestive system (diarrhea);
• ·       associated with eye damage (endocrine ophthalmopathy
• ·       the appearance of protrusion of the eyeballs outward, edema of the tissues around the eye, incomplete closure of the eyelids, pain during movement of the eyeballs, etc.).