Familial graves' disease among three black africa families, case report and review of literature

Abstract

In the African setting with improvement in iodine supplementation by iodization of salt and drinking water; Graves disease may become more prominent as the main aetiology of thyrotoxicosis as toxic nodular goitre used to rank side by side in the causation of thyrotoxicosis. A report of Graves disease is being made among three black African Nigerian families. Graves' disease is an autoimmune disorder which is said not to be prevalent in the African continent because of the low prevalence of other autoimmune diseases. However, viruses and bacteria have been generally associated with its causation in genetically prone individuals. There is need for genetic analysis to be carried out in these types of cases as it will be of interest to document familial Graves' disease and its genetic nature in the blacks as not many cases have been reported. This will help to design the best treatment for each individual case.

Keywords: Familial Graves' disease, HLA haplotypes and polymorphisms

Jos Journal of Medicine, Volume 7 No. 2