Incidence and etiology of thyroid disorders in children

Abstract

Background: The prevalence of thyroid disorders is known to be influenced by environmental factors especially iodine deficiency. The most common cause of hypothyroidism in children is autoimmune thyroiditis, which leads to Hashimoto thyroiditis and lymphocyte thyroiditis. Hyperthyroidism is comparatively rare now due to increase in iodine content, but if present it causes rapid linear growth and skeletal growth due to increase in metabolic activity. This study was hence conducted to identify the types of thyroid diseases in our area as well as try to identify the etiology.Methods: 63 children who were suspected of thyroid disorders. Thorough demographic details, physical and clinical examination was done for all the patients. Blood samples were taken from all the patients for T3, T4 and TSH estimation.Results: A female predominance of 2:1 was observed over males. Euthyroid was observed in 58.3% of the cases, followed by 30.6% of hypothyroid and 11.1% hyperthyroid. The most common cause was found to be acquired hypothyroidism (47.2%), followed by congenital hypothyroidism (22.2%) and goiter (22.2%). Autoimmunie thyroid disorders accounted for 8.3% of the cases.Conclusions: Autoimmune disorders, congenital hypothyroidism and acquired hypothyroidism being the common causes of thyroid disorders with females more prone to than males. Since in the long run, hypothyroidism can lead to cardiovascular diseases, it is advisable to identify this disorder as soon as possible so that effective treatment can be started immediately.