Pediatric Endocrinology Thyroid Disorder
Thyroid disorders statistics suggest that 1 in 4000 babies have thyroid disease. In fact, about 20 million Americans have a thyroid disorder of some type.
Enlarged Thyroid
An enlarged thyroid (Graves Disease) is one of the most common causes of thyroid disorders in children.
Symptoms of Graves include nervousness, increased appetite, diarrhea, poor school performance and rapid height growth. In addition, about half of children show lid retraction and stare. A thyroid tumor (known as a goiter) can be present in about 50% of the cases.
Treatment includes anti-thyroid drugs, radioiodine therapy and thyroid gland removal surgery.
Hypothyroidism
When the thyroid is underactive and not producing enough thyroid hormones, it's called Hypothyroidism. It's one of the most common thyroid diseases. What happens in this disorder is that the body produces antibodies that fight against the thyroid gland.
Children's symptoms include the following:
- Constipation
- Poor appetite
- Jaundice
- Slow bone growth
- Delayed puberty
- Hair loss
- Dry skin
- Slow pulse
- Droopy eyelids
- Slow growth
If untreated in newborns, this could lead to mental retardation. It could also lead to anemia and even heart failure.
Diagnosis and Treatment
Inherent at birth hypothyroidism can be detected during routine newborn health screenings. Blood tests and a thyroid gland scan are other diagnostic methods.
Once it's been diagnosed, hypothyroidism treatment will be based on several factors:
- How active the disease is
- Medication and treatment tolerance
- The health and medical history of the child
- The age of the child
The prescription of thyroid hormones may be required to replace the deficient ones. In fact, thyroid hormone replacement therapy may be required for a lifetime for some children while some will outgrow the disorder.
Careful monitoring of the child's thyroid hormone levels will be required during the course of treatment to check the body's reaction and response to the treatment.
Thyroid Cancer in Children
Statistics indicate there's about a 30% chance that a thyroid nodule will turn out to be malignant. Thyroid scans and using fine needle aspiration are the two most common methods to detect nodules.
Pediatric papillary thyroid cancer is the most common malignant tumor found in children. In fact, it's present in 60-80% of all cases.
Thyroid carcinoma comprises the remainder of the cases.
Surgery is required to remove the lesions.