Basedow's disease.

  • New York Neurological Society.
Date:
[1887?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Basedow's disease. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    263 admitted into the Roosevelt Hospital on May 25, 1887. She was a widow, forty-seven years of age, a housekeeper. Both the personal and family history were good. Two years before, she had begun to complain of palpitation, dyspnoea upon exertion, and swelling of the throat, which was largest upon the right side. She could not lie upon that side. In the course of a year the eyes began to protrude, and at the time she entered the hospital she had a profuse watery diarrhoea. The pupils were found to be equal, and the reaction to light and to accom- modation were good. The lids did not follow the eyeballs. The neck measured thirteen inches around the lower thyroid region, and ten inches and a half around the upper thyroid region. There was dysphagia to solid food. The pulse was from 100 to 120, and the respiration 38. The apex-beat was found in the fifth space, in the nipple line. There was epigastric pulsation and the area of dullness was slightly increased. There was a short systolic murmur at the apex. There was a systolic thrill over the jugulars, also a continuous venous hum. The pulmonary resonance was exaggerated. The veins of the retina pulsated, but the ar- teries did not. There was no tremor. The patient lived until May 31st. She suffered from watery diarrhoea and restlessness, but was not otherwise sick. In walking to the bath-room one evening, she fell dead on the floor. The autopsy showed the thyroid reduced in size, but still moder- ately enlarged and of a pink color. The kidneys showed a trace of fibrous tissue, but otherwise the organs were nor- mal. There was apparently nothing abnormal in the me- ulla nor in the sympathetic or vagus nerves. Microscopic examination of these parts also showed nothing. Dr. W. O. Moore had seen twelve cases, all in women of the average age of forty years, the youngest being thirty- one and the oldest forty-five. Ophthalmoscopic examina- tion had simply shown enlargement and tortuosity of the vessels. Gieat relaxation of the bowels had been P • 'it in one of the cases, as many as ten evacuations tak- P ace in the day, which it was impossible to control lcctncity had been of no avail in these cases. All had