Abstract

Objective: High thyroid hormone levels have been declared to increase the risk of venous thromboembolism while low levels increasing the risk of bleeding. However, the relations between congenital hypothyroidism (CH) and intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), especially in the preterm infants, is unknown. In our study, we aimed to investigate the relation between severe intracranial hemorrhage and CH in the very low birth weight (VLBW) infants.

Material and Methods: Data of the VLBW infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit were retrospectively recorded between January 2013 and December 2016. Gestational age (GA), birth weight (BW), gender, 1st and 5th minute Apgar score, antenatal steroid administration, maternal thyroid disease, cranial ultrasonography findings, thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and free thyroxine (fT4) levels were obtained from the hospital records. Demographic characteristics and IVH were compared between the groups with and without CH.

Results:CH was detected in 26 (4.5 %) of 581 VLBW infants. Gestational age (27.3 ± 1.04 weeks) and BW (978 ± 197 g) were lower in the infants with CH than without CH (GA 28.1 ± 1.2 weeks, BW 1073 ± 226 g) (p<0.001 p=0.037, respectively). There was no significant difference in terms of severe IVH between the groups with CH (7.7 %) and without CH (6.5 %) (p=0.95). In the severe IVH group, the level of sT4 was found to be significantly lower (p=0.018). Results for TSH were similar between the groups with and without severe IVH (p=0.215).

Conclusion: We suggested that CH did not increase the risk of severe IVH in VLBW preterm infants. However, lower sT4 levels in severe IVH group, which was attributed to hypothalamic unresponsiveness to the critical disease and brain damage.

Keywords: Very low birth weight, Congenital hypothyroidism, Cerebral intraventricular hemorrhage, Thyroid function test

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Copyright © 2019 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

How to cite

1.
Çakır U. Evaluation of the Relationship Between Congenital Hypothyroidism and Intraventricular Hemorrhage in the Very Low Birth Weight Infants. Turk J Pediatr Dis [Internet]. 2019 Mar. 26 [cited 2025 Aug. 23];13(2):45-9. Available from: https://turkjpediatrdis.org/article/view/618