Classical Graves' disease with hyperthyroidism goitre and eye signs is by far the most common. Ophthalmic Graves' disease is rarer and presents more often to the ophthalmologist or to the ear, nose and throat surgeon. It must be distinguished from a space-occupying lesion that affects the orbit. Neonatal Graves' disease is rare and results from the transplacental passage of TSH-R(s) antibodies from a mother with Graves' disease to her child; it is a self-limiting disease. The term potential Graves' disease can be applied to the unaffected identical twin of a patient with Graves' disease or siblings of such a patient who have identical HLA haplotypes. Latent Graves' disease can be used to describe patients in remission following treatment.
