Experience with carbimazole in the drug treatment of the hyperthyroidism of Graves' diseases in Nigerians.

To estimate the rate of remission of relapse in patients with thyrotoxic Graves' disease following therapy with thionamides, the course of 49 patients who were treated with carbimazole and followed personally for a mean (+/- SD) of 22.0 +/- 17.8 months, was analysed. A remission rate of 61% was obtained. Remissions were more common in patients with small goitres and those with a short duration of illness. Relapse, which was infrequent, occurred mostly within a few months following the discontinuation of the drug. 32% of the patients left the clinic either before or soon after achieving euthyroidism. It is concluded that carbimazole is quite efficacious in the induction or remission in newly diagnosed Nigerian patients with toxic Graves' disease and, at the present time, should probably be the principal treatment modality for these patients rather than subtotal thyroidectomy. Efforts should be made to reduce the frequent drop-out of our patients from the clinic during follow-up.