In a number of other abnormalities of thyroid gland in children, which in their essence do not differ from those of adults, it is necessary to distinguish congenital hypothyroidism, which develops due to various hereditary problems and negative factors even in the womb, from which it appears immediately after the birth of the child and can lead to cretinism.
The main causes of congenital hypothyroidism are:
- hereditary factor (severe maternal hypothyroidism or low thyroid hormone levels);
- ectopia of the thyroid gland (wrong location and / or discrepancy of thyroid size, accompanied by its
- dysfunction);
- violation of the formation of thyroid in the embryonic period;
- Endemic goiter, manifested in the mother during pregnancy;
- hypoplasia (underdevelopment) or athereoz (total absence) of thyroid gland;
- a significant lack of iodine and selenium, which are the basis of production of thyroid hormones.
It is practically impossible to detect the first symptoms and external signs of the disease in infants, and therefore to test the development of cretinism on the 4th-7th day of life, all newborns are tested for the purpose of determining the concentration of thyrotropin in them. An overestimated level of TSH, together with additional studies (ultrasound, radiography, etc.) gives grounds to assume the inadequacy or total absence of thyroid hormone production and is an indication for the immediate conduct of preventive therapy with thyroxine preparations.
Cretinism in children
If the thyroid problems in children are diagnosed in the first days of their life (up to 21 days), the appointment of adequate hormonal therapy, carried out later throughout life, guarantees normal physical and mental development of the child. Otherwise, the consequences of the disease lead to the development of cretinism with irreversible changes of intellectual and physical nature.
About how the manifestation of the disease is cretinism and how serious the changes in physiology and psyche in a person suffering from this pathology can be judged by its external signs, as well as by other negative symptoms.
The characteristic symptomatology of cretinism:
- serious lag in mental / physical development;
- prolonged uninhibition of the infant fontanelle;
- delay in skeletal growth, up to the formation of dwarfism;
- delay of eruption and further change of teeth;
- bloating;
- changes in facial features due to tissue swelling (wide and flat nose with a falling back, hypertelorism of the
- eyes);
- low hairline;
- an increase in the tongue, which often does not fit in the mouth;
- jaundice;
- disproportionality of the body;
- poor appetite;
- thickening and coarsening of the skin;
- disorders in the psychoemotional sphere;
- decreased blood pressure;
- intellectual violations, right up to the formation of idiocy;
- dryness and fragility of the hair;
- decreased activity;
- underdevelopment (rudimentary) of secondary sexual characteristics;
- Myxedema edema, manifested with myxedematous cretinism.
Now, in more detail, consider the negative signs and manifestations of the main pathologies of the thyroid gland, characteristic of any gender and age, as well as their causes in women, men and children.