[Muscular and nervous system manifestations of Graves' disease]

Abstract

A study of 30 cases of Grave's disease confirmed the frequency of hyperthyroid myopathy, whether obvious or revealed by E.M.G. More than by the association of various symptoms (pretibial myxoedema, antithyroid antibodies), we were struck by the multiple symptoms of Grave's disease with myopathy, which confirms the anglo-saxon concept of the polysystemic nature of Grave's disease. This symptomatic richness is not necessarily proportional to the thyroid hypersecretion, and one may suppose that these patients have a greater peripheral sensitivity to the effects of hormone excess, which would explain the multiple clinical signs. The frequency of neuropathy seemed to us more important than usually believed. The clinical signs are often, or absent, or may be masked by the predominance of muscle wasting. If E.M.G. of the distal muscle and measurement of conduction rates were carried out more often as a routine, this would no doubt permit better assessment of the true frequency of neural involvement.