Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Hypothyroidism, congenital or acquired, is responsible for hypometabolism. It is the leading cause of preventable mental retardation in children. Its congenital form is common with 1 in 3500 births. The objective of our work was to describe the characteristics and etiologies of hypothyroidism.

Patients and methods: Retrospective descriptive and analytical study on patients followed for hypothyroidism in transition consultation at the department of Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases at Ibn Rochd University Hospital in Casablanca. The statistical analysis was carried out by SPSS 25.

Results: We included 23 patients. The average age of patients was 16.6 years with a female predominance in 89% of cases. The average age of diagnosis was 3.6 years. Two patients were diagnosed in the neonatal period. A notion of consanguinity was found in 6 patients, (26% of cases). When the diagnosis was discovered, 9 patients had generalized hypotonia, 7 patients had constipation, 5 patients had delayed psychomotor acquisitions and 2 patients had respiratory disorders. Etiologically, hormone disorders were predominant in 19 patients with positive antithyroperoxidase antibodies in 11 patients. Thyroid dysgenesis was found in 4 patients. All of the patients were put on L-thyroxine with a good clinical evolution in all of our patients.

Conclusion: Hypothyroidism, in case of delayed diagnosis, can have an impact on the neurological development of the child. Hence the systematic neonatal screening and the education of parents and patients on therapeutic observance.