TREATMENT OF HYPERTHYROIDISM DURING PREGN ANCY - ANALYSIS OF 19 CONSECUTIVE CASES

Untreated hyperthyroidism in pregnant women is associated with a high incidence of maternal and fetal complications. Thus, its treatment is mandatory, ideally using PTU because it has lesser transplacental pass age From 1987 and 1991 we have attended 19 hyperthyroid pregnant women Of these, 18 had diffuse and 1 nodular goiter and in 10, thyrotoxicos is preceded pregnancy PTU was used in 17 women (7 received it along th e whole pregnancy), five had to be operated due to poor response. one received propranolol and one patient was not treated due to lack of at tendance Cesarean section was performed in 12 women, 5 had vaginal del ivery, one had a miscarriage at the 20th week of pregnancy due to a ne urological malformation and one patient was lost from control before d elivery, The newborn of the untreated woman had a neonatal thyrotoxico sis and the resting 16 did not show evidence of thyroid disfunction. N ewborns from mothers receiving PTU until delivery had significantly lo wer rT3 levels and non significant changes in T4 and T3. At the end of the observation period, 8 patients were euthyroid, 3 hypothyroid (2 a fter 131-1 and 1 after surgery) 4 continued on PTU and 4 were lost fro m control. It is concluded that the outcome of pregnancy may be uneven tful in hyperthyroid women provided that there is a close and adequate follow up.