Treatment of mild to moderate Graves' ophthalmopathy with sodium diclofenac: a pilot study

objective: to report the use of sodium diclofenac, an antagonist of ppar-gamma and cyclooxigenase-2 (cox-2) inhibitor in the treatment of mild to moderate graves' ophthalmopathy. subjects and methods: thirteen patients with clinical activity score (cas) 2 to 7 were treated during a period ranging from 3 to 12 months (mean 7.8 ± 3.4) with oral sodium diclofenac, 50 mg every 12 hours. results: extra-ocular muscle restriction and cas improved significantly, p = 0.003 and = 0.004, respectively. ocular pain and diplopia disappeared, except for one patient who reported improvement of these symptoms. no recurrence was found after interruption of treatment. conclusions: treatment of moderate graves' ophthalmopathy with oral sodium diclofenac is a good, safe and less expensive therapeutic option. like others new treatment trials, findings must be confirmed in a greater number of patients in a controlled study.