title: Isolated ascites in hypothyroidism: medical and ethical issues.
abstract: Hypothyroidism presenting as ascites is one of the rarest clinical scenarios encountered in medical practice. A case of a 65-year-old woman, presenting with progressive onset ascites, secondary to underlying hypothyroidism, which responded to thyroid hormone replacement therapy is reported. A feature of hypothyroidism Induced ascites is the high protein content of the ascitic fluid (> 2.5 g/dl), a high serum albumin ascites gradient (SAAG) and the consistent drastic response of ascites to thyroid hormone replacement. Hypothyroid ascites is thus a very rare manifestation of the primary disease, but should be borne in mind when other causes of ascites are ruled out and the ascitic fluid shows typical features.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Medicine, Nilratan Sircar Medical College, Kolkata 700014.
authors.forename: Cyriac Abby
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Philips
authors.forename: Uma
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Sinha
authors.forename: Partha
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chattopadhyay
authors.forename: Prasanta
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mukhopadhyay
authors.forename: Swaraj
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Haldar
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001201:Ascites / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology*; D003951:Diagnostic Errors / Q000941:ethics / Q000517:prevention & control; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007037:Hypothyroidism / Q000150:complications* / Q000188:drug therapy; D007194:India; D013974:Thyroxine / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D013974:Thyroxine