Figure 4.

(A) Bar graph showing relapse rates in patients receiving at least 18 months' of treatment (n = 120) by sex. Male patients were nearly 1.5 times more likely to experience relapse compared with female patients. (B) Bar graph showing relapse rates in patients receiving at least 18 months' of treatment (n = 120) by ethnicity. Relapse was most likely in patients of white British origin, having an almost 4-fold increased risk of relapse compared with Asian patients. (C) Bar graph showing relapse rates in patients receiving at least 18 months' of treatment (n = 120) by smoking status. Risk of relapse was over 50% more likely in patients who had ever smoked, compared to those who had never smoked. (D) Bar graph showing relapse rates in patients receiving at least 18 months' of treatment (n = 120) by initial fT4. Patients with an initial fT4 >45 pmol/l were a third more likely to experience relapse, than those with an initial serum fT4 <23 pmol/l. (E) Bar graph showing relapse rates in patients receiving at least 18 months' of treatment (n = 120) by initial TSH receptor antibody titre. There was a trend to increasing risk of relapse as initial TSH receptor antibody titre increases with those with a titre >9 mU/l having a >2-fold increase in risk of relapse, compared to those with an initial TSH receptor antibody titre <2 mU/l. (F) Bar graph showing relapse rates in patients receiving at least 18 months' of treatment (n = 120) by serum fT4 (pmol/l) at the final visit. As serum fT4 increased, so did the risk of relapse, with patients with a serum fT4 in the upper range of normal (>15 pmol/l) having a relapse rate more than twice that of those with a final serum fT4 in the lower part of the reference range (<12 pmol/l).