New clinical guidelines for optimal care of patients with hyperthyroidism, a condition when the thyroid gland produces more thyroid hormone than the body needs, which affects about one percent of Americans, appear in the current issue of Endocrine Practice, the journal of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE). The guidelines, developed jointly by AACE and the American Thyroid Association (ATA), are available free online.
Key updates in the guidelines involve the treatment of Graves' disease. This condition, which may cause eye protrusion, is the most common form of hyperthyroidism.
"The new guidelines review well-established treatment options for Graves' Disease, while emphasizing how and when physicians should take their patients' preference into consideration," said Dr. Jeffrey R. Garber, President-elect of the American College of Endocrinology, and member of the joint association guideline development task force.
The guidelines also present new approaches to managing Graves' eye disease; subclinical hyperthyroidism, the term for mild or early forms of hyperthyroidism; and which drugs are now preferred to treat the various forms of hyperthyroidism."
"Our goal with these new guidelines is to provide every doctor treating thyroid patients the tools they need to provide the most effective care," said Yehuda Handelsman, President of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists. "Today, we have access to more clinical research data than ever before, and these guidelines help put that knowledge in the physicians' hands."
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