Goitre a choker, dubbed "Kropfband" (struma band) which was used to hide either the goitre or the remnants of goitre surgery. In the 1920s wearing bottles of iodine around the neck was believed to prevent goitre. The coat of arms and crest of Die Kröpfner, of Tyrol showed a man "afflicted with a large goitre", an apparent pun on the German for the word ("Kropf"). Goitre A goitre, or goiter, is a swelling in the neck resulting from an enlarged thyroid gland. A goitre is associated with a thyroid that is not functioning properly. Worldwide, over 90% of goitre cases are
Complement deficiency Complement deficiency Complement deficiency is an immunodeficiency of absent or suboptimal functioning of one of the complement system proteins. Because there are redundancies in the immune system, many complement disorders are never diagnosed, some studies estimated that less than 10% are identified. "Hypocomplementemia" may be used more generally to refer to decreased complement levels while "secondary complement disorder" means decreased complement levels that are not directly due to a genetic cause but secondary to another medical condition. The following symptoms (signs) are consistent with complement deficiency in general: Vaccinations for encapsulated organisms (e.g., "Neisseria meningitidis" and "Streptococcus pneumoniae") is crucial