Evaluation and clinical application of changes in thyroid hormone and TSH levels in critically ill full-term newborns
-
Gustavo S. Goldsmit
and
Sonia Iorcansky
Abstract
Introduction: The term “euthyroid sick syndrome” (ESS) has been used to describe a pattern of thyroid hormone changes during the course of critical illness in adult patients without thyroid disease, often associated with reduced thyroid hormone secretion.
Objective: To describe the thyroid hormone profile in full-term newborns critically ill compared with thyroid hormone profile of healthy infants, and determine if alterations could be related to the severity of the disease and outcome.
Methods: A cross-sectional, observational, and prospective study of full-term infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of the Hospital de Pediatría J.P. Garrahan between July 2007 and April 2008. Serum T3, T4, and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) levels were measured at admission and severity of the disease was evaluated through SNAP, lactic acid, respiratory assistance and number of organs affected.
Results: Sick newborns showed significantly lower T3 and T4 levels compared with healthy infants [T3: –0.97 μg/dL (95% CI –0.89, –1.13) and T4: –4.37 μg/dL (95% CI –2.95, –5.78)]. Only 29 out of 94 (31%) infants presented a normal profile; 37 (39%) infants showed isolated low T3 levels, 20 (21%) infants had low T3 and T4 levels and eight (9%) infants had low TSH, T3, and T4. Of this latter group, five of eight (62%) children died suggesting a significantly higher risk of death for patients with low T3 associated with low T4 and TSH [Risk ratio (RR) 10.75 95% CI 3.93, 29].
Conclusions: Full-term sick newborns frequently have lower thyroid hormone levels than healthy ones. These observed thyroid hormones changes might be related to the underlying disease and could be used as a prognostic marker of the severity and fatal outcome of the patient.
©2011 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York
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Articles in the same Issue
- Publisher's note
- Publisher's Note
- Review articles
- 3D and 4D sonography and magnetic resonance in the assessment of normal and abnormal CNS development: alternative or complementary
- Selective reduction in twins and multiple pregnancies
- Original articles – Obstetrics
- Do uterotrophic drugs increase the risk of fatal hemorrhagic brain stroke?
- Parental factors affecting the weights of the placenta and the offspring
- Trends in maternal mortality due to obstetric hemorrhage in urban and rural China, 1996–2005
- Original articles – Fetus
- Abdominal circumference ratio for the diagnosis of intertwin birth weight discordance
- Predicting survival of periviable fetuses using NICHD fetal heart rate categories
- Prospective risk of stillbirth in monochorionic-diamniotic twin gestations: a population based study
- Original articles – Newborn
- Effect of ibuprofen on bilirubin-albumin binding affinity in premature infants
- Evaluation and clinical application of changes in thyroid hormone and TSH levels in critically ill full-term newborns
- NCI classification of thrombocytopenia in extremely preterm neonates and its association with mortality and morbidity
- Epidemiology of congenital syphilis in a South Bronx population: a follow-up study
- Quantitative ultramicrotest for newborn screening of galactosemia in Cuba
- Expression of soluble Fas in the cerebrospinal fluid of preterm infants with posthemorrhagic hydrocephalus and cystic white matter damage
- Early left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in premature infants born to preeclamptic mothers
- Letter to the Editors
- Perimortem instrumental vaginal delivery
- Human sex ratio at birth and related factors
- Twins are a risk factor for developing severe hypertensive disorders in the puerperium following a normotensive pregnancy
- Congress calendar
- Congress Calendar
