Clinical Follow-up of Children and Adolescents with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis and Hashitoxicosis

Lee, Young Im; Park, Jea Young; Shin, Young Lim

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
The purpose is to study the natural course and clinical feature according to thyroid function at diagnosis of Hashimoto's thyroiditis in children and adolescent. We studied to know the difference of clinical finding and change of thyroid autoantibody titers between Hashitoxicosis and typical Hashimoto's thyroiditis.
METHODS
We analyzed retrospectively clinical data in 55 patients diagnosed as Hashimoto's thyroiditis. 47 were followed for more than 2 years and they were classified into euthyroid, compensated hypothyroidism, overt hypothyroidism, and hyperthyroidism according to thyroid hormone status at diagnosis. We investigated age, family history, initial thyroid function, initial thyroid autoantibody titers, changes of thyroid function, and changes of thyroid autoantibody titers.
RESULTS
At diagnosis, 10 of 47 patients were in euthyroid, 17 in compensated hypothyroidism, 17 in overt hypothyroidism and 3 in hyperthyroidism. There was no statistically significant difference in the clinical data among the 4 groups of patients. Among the 47 patients, 4 patients had presented Hashitoxicosis. These patients' characteristics were similar to the patients with typical Hashimoto's thyroiditis. They had variable duration of hyperthyroidism range from 3 months to 5 years. It was possible to observe the rise of autoantibody titers from the patients with Hashitoxicosis when thyroid function was shifted to hypothyroidism. However it was not statistically significant.
CONCLUSION
The clinical progress of Hashimoto's thyroiditis and hashitoxicosis varied widely. It is necessary to conduct more researches on the occurrence of Hashitoxicosis and the association with the change of autoantibodies on the patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis.