All issues > Volume 30(12); 1987

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1987;30(12):1401-1408. Published online December 31, 1987.

Clinical Study of Congenital Hypothyroidism.

Byung Churl Lee¹, Soon Joo Lee¹, Sung Hoon Cho¹

¹Department of Pediatrics Catholic Medical College, Seoul, Korea

Abstract

We reviewed 24 patients with congenital hypothyroidism to observe the etiology, clinical symptoms and signs, bone age, height age, the degree of mental retardation and growth velocity after treatment form Jan. 1983 to June 1987. The results were as follows: 1) The male to female ratio was about 1:3.8. The cases diagnosed under 1 year old were only 12.5%. 2) In etiologic classification, thyroid dysgenesis was 20 cases (83.3%) and dyshormonogenesis was 4 cases (16.7%). Hypoplastic gland (41.7%) was the most common cause in the thyroid dysgenesis. 3) Constipation (91.6%), slow growth rate (87.5%) and lethargy (79.2%) were the most common symptoms and mental retardation (91.6%), distended abdomen (87.5%) and delayed dentition (82.3%) were the most common signs of congenital hypothyroidism. 4) Height and bone age was remarkedly retarded in all cases except 2 cases diagnosed under 8 weeks of age. 5) All cases diagnosed and treated after 8 weeks of age showed mild and moderate mental retardation. 6) All cases have shown good responses after sodium levothyroxine therapy. 7) In the 15 cases diagnosed beyond age two years, mean annual growth velocity was 8.2±3.2 cm during the first 3 years after treatment.

Keywords :Congenital hypothyroidism