Abstract
Objective: Descriptive data characterizing the frequency of various chief complaints and presenting symptomatology in children with hyperthyroidism are lacking. Furthermore, difficulties in recognizing atypical presentations may delay diagnosis and increase morbidity.
Methods: We performed a retrospective review of the medical records of 76 children with hyperthyroidism to characterize their chief complaints at initial presentation to care and document other presenting symptomatology.
Results: Cardiac symptoms were the most frequent chief complaint, accounting for 23% of presenting complaints. Major mood and behavior disturbances were also frequently present (21%), but were infrequently cited as the chief complaint (6%).
Conclusions: This study is the first to describe chief complaints separately from the other signs and symptoms of hyperthyroidism noted at the time of presentation to medical attention. Cardiac complaints were the most common; however, complaints associated with behavioral and mood disorders also occurred frequently. Clinicians should be aware of these presentations so that hyperthyroidism is diagnosed promptly to avoid morbidity associated with delayed diagnosis.
©2011 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York
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- Meetings
- Meetings Calendar
Articles in the same Issue
- Publisher’s Note
- Publisher’s Note
- Editorials
- What brings a child to the doctor? A lesson from hyperthyroidism
- Images in Pediatric Endocrinology
- Hypothalamic hamartoma causing precocious puberty in a female child
- Original Contributions
- Adiponectin moderates the relationship between adiposity and leptin in adolescents regardless of gender or race
- Obesity in children and adolescents: relationship to growth, pubarche, menarche, and voice break
- Studies of different female rat models of hypothalamic obesity
- Frequency of congenital hypothyroidism in neonatesin the Konya region, Turkey
- Thyroid dysfunctions in children detected in mass screening for congenital hypothyroidism
- A nutritional intervention study with hydrolyzed collagen in pre-pubertal Spanish children: influence on bone modeling biomarkers
- Neonatal screening for congenital adrenal hyperplasia: transitory elevation of 17-hydroxyprogesterone
- Evidence of insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 proteolysis during growth hormone stimulation testing
- Pediatric 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrationsin neurofibromatosis type 1
- Temperature-responsive and biodegradable PVA:PVP k30:poloxamer 407 hydrogel for controlled delivery of human growth hormone (hGH)
- Patient Report Letters
- A novel EIF2AK3 mutation leading to Wolcott-Rallison syndrome in a Chinese child
- Neurological Wilson’s disease with refractory rickets
- HNF1A mutation presenting with fetal macrosomia and hypoglycemia in childhood prior to onset of overt diabetes
- Pediatric Cushing’s disease due to pituitary hyperplasia
- A 12-year-old Chinese girl with Cushing syndrome and virilization due to adrenocortical carcinoma
- Primary pigmented nodular adrenocortical disease: a case report in a 7-year-old girl
- Normal adrenal function in an infant following a pregnancy complicated by maternal adrenal cortical carcinoma and mitotane exposure
- Transient hyperthyroidism due to acute suppurative thyroiditis in an adolescent female
- High frequency of cardiac and behavioral complaints as presenting symptoms of hyperthyroidism in children
- Aplasia cutis congenita in surviving co-twin after propylthiouracil exposure in utero
- Cushing syndrome due to ectopic adrenocorticotropic hormone secretion in a 3-year-old child
- Familial occurrence of Turner syndrome: casual event or increased risk?
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- Co-existence of ADHD, autoimmune hypothyroidism and pituitary macroadenoma presenting in a behaviour clinic: a case report and brief review of the literature
- Virilizing para-adrenocortical adenoma associated with idiopathic-acquired generalized anhidrosis in an adolescent girl
- Concurrent occurrence of chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis with hypothyroidism and growth hormone deficiency in a Turner’s syndrome patient
- Patient report: sacral agenesis with hypopituitarism
- Meetings
- Meetings Calendar