Thyroid Disorders in Pediatric Patients with Turner Syndrome; A 16 Years' Experience

Background:

 Turner syndrome patients are more likely to develop autoimmune diseases in contrast to the general population. Many research have had controversial results suggest a possible relation between the cytogenetic findings and development of autoimmune thyroid disease in Turner syndrome. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the prevalence of thyroid disorders and the possible relationship between thyroid disorders with the cytogenetic findings in these patients.

The present retrospective study took place in pediatric endocrinology clinic of Imam Reza Hospital (Mashhad, Iran), and every pediatric patient who were younger than 18 years old with the clinical phenotype of Turner syndrome and had complete thyroid function tests enrolled. The medical records of these patients were evaluated and patients were recalled if any further information was needed. The study data including thyroid function tests as well as patients' age, height, weight, and karyotype findings were entered in a check list and the relationship between thyroid functions tests and karyotype findings were evaluated.

Among the 79 patients enrolled in the present study, the mean ± standard deviation of age was 10.82 ± 2.6 years. The most of the study population had negative anti-TPO results (62 patients, 78%). Among all patients, eight patients (10.1%) had autoimmune hypothyroidism There was not any significant relationship between thyroid function tests with different cytogenetic findings (P>0.05).

Conclusion :

Hypothyroidism (26.6%) was the most common thyroid disorder among Turner syndrome patients. Although there was not any significant relationship between thyroid function tets, Z-scores for hight and weight with cytogenetic findings; however, our findings highlights the need for more specific screening programs for evaluating the thyroid functions in turner patient.