Management of thyroid eye disease varies greatly by location
Amongst American and European Thyroid Association members, the clinical management of thyroid eye disease (TED) varies greatly according to geographic location, according to a study.
In this a cross-sectional study, 252 American and European Thyroid Association members started and 227 completed a survey on TED (132 from Europe, 62 from North America, and 33 from other regions). The majority of participants were endocrinologists with a thyroid focus (66.1%) and reported not having a multidisciplinary TED clinic in their institution (52.8%). Of the respondents, 40.5% cared for ≥10 patients with TED over the last year and 47.5% reported that new TED cases per annum have not changed in the last 10 years. Nearly half (41.8%) of TED cases were found in practice during the treatment of hyperthyroidism.
For mild active TED, selenium was used by 73% of European participants, 32% of North American participants, and 24% of respondents from other regions. For moderate-to-severe active TED, teprotumumab was preferred as first-line therapy by 37% of North American participants and intravenous steroids as first-line therapy by 73% and 42% of participants from Europe and other regions, respectively. All participants from the geographic categories preferred IV steroids for optic neuropathy and women planning pregnancy.
The cost of TED treatment, lack of effective TED treatments, and difficulty in predicting if TED will develop were the top reported “very important” concerns about TED management.
Reference
Brito JP, Nagy EV, Singh Ospina NM, et al. A survey on the management of thyroid eye disease among American and European Thyroid Association members. Thyroid. 2022;doi: 10.1089/thy.2022.0172. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35946071.