GROWTH FOLLOW-UP IN 100 CHILDREN WITH CONGENITAL HYPOTHYROIDISM BEFORE AND DURING TREATMENT

In order to asses the influence of age at onset of treatment on subseq uent growth, height, weight, head circumference (HC) and bone age as e stimated by Greulich-Pyle and TW2-RUS methods, 100 children with conge nital hypothyroidism (CH) were studied before and during adequate trea tment up to 5 years of age. The patients were divided into five groups according to age at the start of treatment: Group 1: <2 months (n=26) ; Group 2: 2-3 months (n=13); Group 3: 3-6 months (n=21); Group 4: 6-1 2 months (n=20); Group 5: 12-24 months (n=20). Before treatment, group s 1 and 2 differed significantly from the others in height (p<0.001). With hormone therapy, catch-up growth was observed in groups 3 to 5, b ut at age 5 years no differences were found between groups. In all gro ups, height at 5 years of age correlated significantly with children's midparental height (p<0.002). Bone age was initially retarded in grou ps 3 to 5, but approximated the chronological age by age 5 years. Init ially, HC was less affected than height and remained relatively larger up to age 5 years in all groups. These findings show that thyroid hor mone replacement in CH as late as 24 months corrects the short stature and delayed bone age: by age 5 years.