[Effect of the treatment of hyperthyroidism on the course of exophthalmos]. / Influencia del tratamiento del hipertiroidismo en el curso del exoftalmos.

The exophthalmos evolution in hyperthyroid patients was investigated: twenty patients were randomly assigned to treatment with radioiodine (group I followed 2-162 months) and 20 to treatment with thyroidectomy (group II followed 2-158 months). There was no correlation of sex age and follow up with exophthalmos evolution. In group I, exophthalmos improved in one patient (5%), did not change in ten (50%) and worsened in nine (45%). In group II it got better in six (30%), did not change in seven (35%) and got worse in seven (35%). The differences between the two groups were not statistically significant (p greater than 0.05). The postsurgical thyroid gamma-gram with one mCi of I-131 in group II showed absence of thyroid tissue in nine patients (45%) and remainders of the gland in 11 (55%) and apparently this did not influence the post treatment evolution. The length of pretreatment evolution did not influence the evolution post treatment. In summary, there was no correlation between exophthalmos evolution and kind of treatment in Graves' disease.

[Thyroid hemiagenesis. Report of 3 cases and review of the literature]. / Hemiagenesia tiroidea. Reporte de 3 casos y revisión de la literatura.

The absence of one lobe of the thyroid gland is named thyroid hemiagenesis, the left is affected more frequently (80 percent), in the 50 percent is associate with isthmus agenesis. Predominant in the women, with relation 3:1, the oppose lobe may be of big size and in the 38-47 percent have alteration in the function, of which the hyperthyroidism is more frequently. In 1896 Handfield-Jones reported the first case, having in this moment 118 cases in the world literature, we reported three more, one of which is the second associated with hyperparathyroidism and other is the third with hypothyroidism. The diagnosis was made with I-131 thyroid gammogram and neck echosonography that which evidence the hemiagenesis, and was not necessary to realize the thyroid gammagram with thyroid stimulation hormone. In different series of surgery, necropsis or by thyroid illness the frequency of thyroid hemiagenesis is estimate below 1 percent.

[Purine metabolism in ankylosing spondylitis: clinical study]. / Metabolismo de las purinas en la espondilitis anquilosante: estudio clínico.

We undertook a prospective study of 23 male patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) (New York Criteria), 18 HLA-B27 positive and 5 HLA-B27 negative, five of them had hyperuricemia. The following data of evolution were taken into consideration: age at onset of disease, time course of the disease, presence of urolithiasis, heart disease, flares of uveitis. Clinical activity and degree of disability were evaluated every one to 3 months; on each visit, every patient had determinations of serum and urinary uric acid levels, serum and phosphorus, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), serum protein electrophoresis, as well as X-ray films of the vertebral spine and pelvis. Three groups of patients were detected, all of them with equal age at onset, duration of disease, frequency of B27, peripheral arthritis, and leukocytosis. One group had hyperuricemia (5 of 23 patients, 80% of them HLA-B27 positive) and a lesser degree of clinical activity of the disease (p less than .001, a higher frequency of uveitis (40%, lower levels of serum gammaglobulins (p less than 0.05) and ESR (p less than 0.05), a lesser degree of ankylosis of the spine, and a better functional prognosis than the other groups. Another group (8 of 23 patients, 75% of them were HLA-B27 positive) had normouricemia and hyperuricosuria, and showed a higher frequency of fever (50%), an abnormal urinalysis, and urolithiasis (25%).