myxedema is known as a potentially dangerous
Excerpt from Term Newspaper:
Myxedema is a potentially deadly endocrine regulation disease that usually develops in connection with pre-existing hypothyroidism, when the normal homeostatic mechanisms to get responding to hypothyroidism are confused. It occurs most often in elderly women, and is generally characterized by swelling of the skin area and other smooth tissues (Wall, 2000).
The thyroid gland is usually central to homeostatic metabolic functions, and operates within a complex feedback loop concerning both the pituitary and hypothalamus to control necessary elements of fluid and electrolyte balance and thermoregulation. Below normal conditions, the hypothalamus influences pituitary hormonal end result of thyroid gland stimulating hormone (TSH) via the secretion of thyrotropin launching hormone (TRH). Virtually any dysfunction of the precise functioning of these individual glands, or their complex interrelationships can medications conditions of hyperthyroidism and Grave’s Disease or hypothyroidism and myxedema (MedicineNet, 2002).
Classic indications of myxedema consist of facial swelling caused by subcutaneous accumulation of mucoploysaccharide, coarsening or roughening facial features and excess facial hirsutism, which often provide patients a far older overall look – occasionally by two decades – than their chronological age. Additional symptoms incorporate a decline of mental procedures and working, as well as disadvantaged muscle expand and leisure reflexes. As unexplained hoarseness sometimes takes place in conjunction with hypothyroidism, physicians must also be cautious about misdiagnosing the cause as a function of ordinary laryngeal diseases (Schneiderman, 1993).
While more often relevant to chronic hypothyroidism, myxedema starting point is sometimes a lot more sudden. In the most intense manifestations, myxedema affects multiple organ systems, causing hypothermia (lowering the core body temperature by 3 degrees or perhaps more), diastolic hypertension, resparatory dysfunction and sleep apnea, in the end developing in myxedema coma, which is just treatable through near-toxic doses of thyroxin. Partly for this reason, mortality prices, (which will be 100% with out treatment) might still approach 50% in spite of early medical diagnosis and aggressive intervention (Manifold, 2001).
Triggers and Consistency:
By far, the most typical cause of myxedema and thyroid gland deficiency will either be primary hypothyroidism resulting from reduction or atrophy of thyroid tissue, second hypothyroidism, caused by hypothalamic or pituitary breakdown, or goitrous hypothyroidism, caused by direct impingement from bigger goitrous tissue.
Surgical removal (or radiological destruction) of hypothalamic or pituitary tissues is additionally an obvious cause of myxedema and myxedema coma in the lack of chronic hypothyroidism (Wall, 2000).
Iodine deficiency-based endemic goiter is also suggested as a factor as a causal factor of myxedema, which is corroborated by studies of iodine-deficient areas, like the mountainous areas of the Andes and Himalayas where glacier activity may possibly leach iodine from the garden soil. Worldwide, evidence derived mostly from neonatal screening programs suggests that myxedema affects as many as 200 mil people and since many together in every 4 thousand births. In the United States, myxedema affects ladies approximately five to five times as often as it impacts men, with 2% of adult women exhibiting indications of hypothyroid breakdown (Manifold, 2001).
Hyperthyroidism and myxedema are closely related to other metabolic diseases caused by thyroid breakdown such as Grave’s Disease, however the latter is a function of hyperthyroidism by which too much, rather than too little thyroid gland hormone is usually
