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Abstract

Ingestion of excessive amounts of thyroid hormone, whether intentionally or unintentionally, results in exogenous thyrotoxicosis. Surreptitious ingestion of thyroid hormone for the purpose of feigning hyperthyroidism is more precisely termed factitious thyrotoxicosis. Less commonly, however, exogenous thyrotoxicosis may result from inadvertent ingestion of thyroid hormone. This can be a challenging diagnosis to establish and requires a high index of clinical suspicion. Here, we report the case of a 33-year-old woman with an 18 month history of progressive, severe hyperthyroidism who had unknowingly been consuming thyroid hormone contained in an herbal weight-loss supplement. We review the etiologies, evaluation, and treatment of exogenous thyrotoxicosis.

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Correspondence to David S. Cooper M.D. .

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© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Mathioudakis, N., Cooper, D.S. (2015). Exogenous Thyrotoxicosis. In: Davies, T. (eds) A Case-Based Guide to Clinical Endocrinology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2059-4_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2059-4_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-2058-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-2059-4

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