ECE2013 Poster Presentations Paediatric endocrinology (32 abstracts)
1University Hospital Dona Estefania, Lisbon, Portugal; 2Personalized Care Health Unit, Lisbon, Portugal.
Obesity and thyroid function in children cross-sectional study.
Background: Obesity in children has been increasing dramatically, with a significant increase in cardiovascular and metabolic diseases risk. The role of thyroid dysfunction has been extensively analyzed in obese adults, but to a limited extent in children.
Aims: To estimate the prevalence of hyperthyrotropinemia in obese children and to analyze the influence of BMISDS and TSH in other metabolic variables.
Methods: Retrospective study with data from the first evaluation of obese children in our clinic. Demographic, anthropometric and metabolic variables were studied.
Descriptive analysis consisted of frequencies distribution for qualitative variables and mean±S.D. for continuous variables. For the association between BMISDS, thyroid function and other metabolic variables multiple linear regression models were used. A P value ≤0.05 was considered for statistical significance.
Results: We obtained data from 348 children with mean age of 11.7±3.1 years and mean BMISDS of 2.9±0.7. The prevalence of hyperthyrotropinemia was 8.9% and of homeostasis model assessment-insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) elevation was 69.3%. Children with hyperthyrotropinemia revealed fT3 and HOMA-IR significantly higher than those with normal serum values. BMISDS was positively correlated with TSH and fT4 but not with fT3, when controlled for sex, age and pubertal stage. BMISDS and TSH were positively and independently correlated with HOMA-IR, but not with the lipids.
Conclusions: The prevalence of hyperthyrotropinemia was similar to that reported in other studies and appeared to be influenced by metabolic factors other than fT3 or TRH. Children with hyperthyrotropinemia had significantly higher fT3 and HOMA-IR. BMISDS was positively correlated with TSH, fT4 and HOMA-IR. TSH and BMISDS were positively and independently correlated with HOMA-IR, which suggests that hyperthyrotropinemia might exacerbate insulin resistance in obese children.