CHANGES IN THE PROMINENCE OF THE EYES IN VARIOUS THYROID STATES1

Abstract

FOLLOWING thyroidectomy for exophthalmic goiter there frequently occurs an increase in the prominence of the eyes even though the patient's gross appearance suggests improvement in the exophthalmos. This observation was reported by Soley (3) in 1942 and (4, 5,) 1944, and confirmed by Dobyns (2) in 1945. As a sequel to studies described elsewhere we have studied by actual measurements the changes in the prominence of the eyes in other pathologic thyroid states during the course of various kinds of treatment. METHOD As previously described in another communication (2), the eyes of these patients have been measured with the Hurtel exophthalmometer. All measurements were made by the same observer who used the same instrument which was set at the same interocular setting for any one patient. The measurements were made as nearly as possible at the same time of day (about noon). The present study is a continuation of a former one in which several thousand measurements on the eye were made. Methods thus were well established. Attempts were made to have the relative position of the head and the rotation of the eyes as constant as possible in the series of measurements. It has been shown that the averages of multiple (six) daily determinations over a period of time make it possible to recognize minute changes in the prominence of the eyes