Comments to the European Thyroid Association guidelines for the management of subclinical hypothyroidism in pregnancy and in children

Abstract

there is no evidence that maternal levothyroxine therapy im-proves this outcome. Targeted antenatal screening for thy-roid function will miss a substantial percentage of women with thyroid dysfunction. In children SCH (serum TSH con-centration >5.5–10 mU/l) normalizes in >70% and persists in the majority of the remaining patients over the subsequent 5 years, but rarely worsens. There is a lack of studies examin-ing the impact of SCH on the neuropsychological develop-ment of children under the age of 3 years. In older children, the evidence for an association between SCH and impaired neuropsychological development is inconsistent. Good qual-ity studies examining the effect of treatment of SCH in chil-dren are lacking.