Long-term monitoring of Graves’ disease in children and adolescents: a single-center experience

Background/aim: Graves’ disease (GD) is more severe, requires a more complex treatment, and has a lower probability of achieving remission in children than in adults. There is no consensus on the appropriate duration of antithyroid drug (ATD) treatment. Surgical or radioactive iodine (RAI) treatments are not definitive and generally result in permanent hypothyroidism. This study’s goal was examining the effectiveness of ATD treatment in children and adolescents with GD and determining the risk factors of remission and relapse. Materials and methods: This retrospective study included 45 patients (36 females and 9 males, median age 12.5 years) aged 4–18 who were diagnosed with GD between 2003 and 2017. All patients initially were treated with an ATD. ATD treatment was discontinued at a mean of 23.2 ± 13.2 months (10–37 months). Results: Patients were classified into remission (n = 24) and relapse groups (n = 21). The duration of initial ATD treatment in the remission group was longer (26.91 ± 5.17 months) than in the relapse group (19.09 ± 7.14 months) (P = 0.01). The total ATD treatment duration was statistically longer in the remission group (42.14 ± 14.35 months) than in the relapse group (26.95 ± 16.13 months) (P = 0.03). Conclusion: Long-term initial ATD treatment and long-term total ATD treatment were evaluated as positive parameters for the remission of Graves’ disease in children and adolescents. Our findings showed that the chance of long-term remission increases in direct proportion to the initial ATD treatment duration and the total ATD treatment duration.