Abstract
Excessive intake of iodine by mothers can result in congenital hypothyroidism (CH) in their offspring. To assess such a possibility in a group of 17 newborns with CH, we evaluated the iodine status of their mothers by assessing iodine intake during pregnancy (by dietary recall) and by measuring maternal serum protein bound iodine (PBI) levels 3 weeks after delivery. In 7 out of 17, 24 hr urinary excretion of iodine (UEI) was also measured. Thyroid disfunctions in newborns (low serum T4 levels with elevated TSH) were detected at 3 days of age by the N.Y. State Screening Program for CH and confirmed, usually at 2 weeks of age. Eight infants had goitrous hypothyroidism, 5 ectopic thyroid gland and 4 thyroid agenesis. The dietary recall revealed that none of the mothers was consuming an excessive amount of iodine during pregnancy. The mean ±SD serum PBI levels in all mothers were normal (6.24±1.0ug/dl). The mean±SD PBI levels of mothers of infants with goitrous hypothyroidism were the same as those with other types of CH (5.96±0.8ug/dl). The mean±SD 24 hr UEI was 10.7±6.7 ug/dl. None of the mothers was found to have any abnormalities of the thyroid function, and did not have anti-thyroid antibodies. An excessive intake of iodine during pregnancy appears to be a rather infrequent event and thus an unlikely cause of CH in newborns. Nor a lack of iodine in the mothers' diet appears to be a cause of CH.
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