Contents:
- Medical Video: 11 Signs of Health Problems Hidden On Your Face
- What is Graves' disease?
- What are the signs and symptoms of a goiter that has attacked the eye?
- What checks need to be done?
- What is the best treatment for eye disorders that have been experienced?
- How to prevent eye disorders from getting worse
Medical Video: 11 Signs of Health Problems Hidden On Your Face
Typical goiter (struma) with a large lump in the throat caused by a disturbance in the thyroid gland. Apparently besides causing a lump in the neck, people with goiter also often experience eye disorders due to excessive production of thyroid hormone signs of Graves' disease. See the full explanation in the article below.
What is Graves' disease?
Graves' disease is an autoimmune disease, which happens to the body's immune system to attack healthy tissue - not foreign cells that cause disease, such as viruses or bacteria. In this case, the immune system attacks the thyroid gland located in the neck, causing a swollen neck to characterize goiter. That is why people who have goiter also tend to be more at risk for this disease.
Not only does it attack the thyroid gland in the neck, the immune system can also attack muscles and fat tissue around the eyes, causing swollen eyes.
What are the signs and symptoms of a goiter that has attacked the eye?
System attacks cause inflammation which can increase pressure on the eyeball. In some patients, this can suppress the eye nerves. Swelling and inflammation that occurs also helps weaken the function of the eye's driving muscles called the extraocular muscles.
Symptoms of eye disease characteristic of goiter due to Graveas disease vary depending on the severity. Following is the sequence of symptoms that may arise, sequentially from the mildest severity to the most severe:
- Swollen eyelids
- Retraction of the petals (the eyelids are pulled back), can be accompanied or without the protrusion of the eyeball (proptosis) and minimal disruption of the movement of the eyeball muscles.
- Movement of the eyeball is very disturbed, causing double vision; protrusion of the eyeball can also be seen clearly.
- Vision can be lost due to infection wounds in the cornea and eye nerve suppression.
What checks need to be done?
There are at least three checks that are required to ensure the diagnosis of Graves' disease, namely:
- Eye examination to look for eye abnormalities in the form of retraction of the petals, protrusion of the eyeball, impaired eye movements, ulcers on the cornea.
- Examination of thyroid hormone function. Ninety percent of them will show hyperthyroidism, while 5-10% of them can occur in patients with hypothyroidism (the most common cause is Hashimoto's thyroiditis) or euthyroid patients (normal thyroid hormone levels).
- Imaging tests using ultrasound waves, CT scans, or MRI. CT-scan of the eye area is the main choice for seeing thickening of the eyeball muscles, while MRI is used to determine the emphasis on the eyeball nerve.
What is the best treatment for eye disorders that have been experienced?
Treatment is done differently depending on the severity of the disease being experienced.
If the severity is mild, the treatment is to reduce dry eye conditions using eye drops. Botox injections on retracted eyelids can also be recommended. Selenium supplements are prescribed to ward off oxidative stress in the eye.
In the case of moderate degrees, the doctor can administer methylprednisolone by infusion once a week for 6 weeks. This method has proven effective in reducing the severity of the disease.
For cases that are already too heavy, treatment needs to be done quickly including corticosteroids, radiotherapy, and also decompression through the surgical process.
How to prevent eye disorders from getting worse
Avoid cigarette smoke, don't smoke or stop smoking if you have been smoking. Increasing the severity of this disease is mainly related to the use of cigarettes. In the latest study comparing smokers and non-smokers, it was found that cigarettes increased disease severity by up to seven times. In addition, the more cigarettes spent in one day the faster the disease progressed.
