Endocrine Abstracts

Aim: To study physical, sexual and mental development and neurophychological disorders of children with congenital hypothyroidism.

Methods and materials: 11.5±0.5 year old 60 children and teenagers with congenital hypothyroidism (CH) have been examined. Radioimmunologic (RIA) study of blood hormone level revealed confident decrease of somatotropic hormone (STH), thyroid (T3, T4), gonadotropic, sex hormones and increase of thyreotropic hormone (TTG). Growth arrest correlating to STH insufficiency in bloof (P<0.05).

Results and discussions: The degree of physical, sexual and mental development arrest was respectively high in these patients to be accompanied by decrease in level of FSH, LH, estradiol, testosterone and thyroid hormones. Study of neurological status revealed 1-3 degree of endocrine encephalopathy. In 95% of cases electroencephalography (EEG) showed dysfunction of cerebral trunkal-diencephalic structures. Prevalence of slow EEG waves with no normal cerebral cortex biological rhytms has been revealed to indicate neuro-endocrine regulation delay in cerebral neuron functioning.

Investigation of mental development of our patients was included evaluation by D. Veksler, which showed deep disorders of IQ (23±1.5).

All these disorders are accompanied by significant higher nervous activity defects (acad. A.R. Luria’s method, Russia) with various cortical centre compartments’ dysfunction revealed. Severity of disorders in praxis, gnosis, mentality, operative memory, count and speech correlates to general development arrest degree, EEG data and to thyroid hormones deficiency (T3, T4) revealed.

Conclusions: Our investigations showed that between hormonal and neuroendocrine disorders in patients with CH have been direct dependence.

The implication of endocrine regulation in pathogenesis of physical development retardation upon various diseases was confidently confirmed in dynamics of examination of hormonal, anthropometrical, neuropsychological, neurophysiological and roentgenological parameters, direct dependence between degree of physical, sexual and mental development retardation in patients with congenital hypothyroidism being observed.