What are the symptoms and signs of thyroid eye disease?
Patients with Graves’ disease may have a variety of eye symptoms that are not always recognized right away as features of a thyroid disorder: Protrusion of one or both eyeballs. Puffy, swollen eyelids. Gritty, burning, irritated eyes that frequently water. Diplopia (double vision). Decreased vision, often following reduced brightness of colors. Redness and swelling of the conjunctiva, the thin layer covering the white part of the eye. Difficulty in completely closing the eyelids, especially while sleeping. The most common eye sign in Graves’ disease is proptosis, in which the eyes appear to bulge outward. This finding is present in 70 – 90% of cases of thyroid eye disease. The swelling that causes proptosis is due to collections of fluid, fat, and inflammatory cells. The muscles that move the eyes may also become congested and stiff. This leads to double vision, since the muscles are unable to move the eyes together. As the disease gets worse, scarring of these muscles may occur, resul
