[Difficulties in diagnosing Graves' ophthalmopathy--case report].
OBJECTIVE
The aim is to present diagnostic difficulties which may occur when diagnosing Graves' ophthalmopathy.


METHODS
49-year-old woman, who had been smoking 20 cigarettes a day since she was 21 years old, treated for Graves' disease for 14 years, with the right eyeball protrusion existing for 6 months, dysfunction of eye movements and diplopia, was admitted to the Diabetes and Endocrinology Center in Bydgoszcz. After ophthalmological examination the patient underwent MRI and USG of the orbits which showed a change in the inferior rectus muscle of the right eye which could correspond to orbit tumor. In the Ophthalmology Department of the Medical Academy in Bydgoszcz the opening of the orbit was carried out in order to confirm or to eliminate the neoplastic process.


RESULTS
Surgery and control examinations excluded neoplastic process.


CONCLUSIONS
It is very difficult to differentiate between inflammatory infiltration and neoplastic tumor in patients with unilateral protrusion in the course of Graves' ophthalmopathy.
Sikorska
Zofia W
ZW
Bydgoskie Centrum Diabetologii i Endokrynologii w Bydgoszczy. zofia_sikorska@wp.pl
Stafiej
Joanna M
JM
D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006111:Graves Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008875:Middle Aged; D009918:Orbital Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D014463:Ultrasonography