The Turkish Journal of Pediatrics
2013 , Vol 55 , Num 4
Monitoring and Prognostic Evaluation of Patients with Congenital Hypothyroidism Treated in a Pediatric Endocrinology Unit
Units of Pediatric Endocrinology, Department of Pediatrics, 1Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Medicine, İzmir, and 2Bilim
University Faculty of Medicine, İstanbul, Turkey. E-mail: tunuvar@gmail.com
In this study, the etiological factors, diagnostic approaches, dose, and duration
of treatment were compared between cases with transient and permanent
congenital hypothyroidism (CH) with respect to prognosis. One hundred
and twenty-two patients who received treatments with the diagnosis of CH
in the last 10 years were included in the study. The records of the patients
were reviewed retrospectively. Serum thyroid- stimulating hormone (TSH)
levels at the time of diagnosis were found to be significantly higher, and total
thyroxine (TT4) levels were found to be significantly lower in the permanent
CH group in comparison to the transient CH group. A statistically significant
difference was present between the groups regarding treatment doses, the
time needed for TSH decrease to <5 mIU/ml and the TSH and free thyroxine
(FT4) levels obtained one month after discontinuation of the treatment. The
association between age at the time of initiation of treatment and results of
Denver Developmental Test was noted to be statistically significant. The high
frequency of transient CH in our region leads to the result that some of the
patients had to be unnecessarily treated with L-thyroxine for a long time.
Keywords :
congenital hypothyroidism, thyroid hormone, transient hypothyroidism.