Some studies on the natural history of Graves' orbitopathy: increase in orbital fat is a rather late phenomenon.

Aim: To describe volumes of orbital fat (FV) and extraocular muscles (MV) in Graves' orbitopathy (GO) as a function of the duration of GO.

Patients: i) Cross-sectional survey among 95 consecutive patients with untreated GO who had been referred to the combined thyroid-eye clinics of our university hospital. ii) Longitudinal survey among 39 of the 95 patients who did not receive any therapeutic intervention and were followed for 1 year.