Relationship between serum thyroid hormone level and prognosis in critically ill children with euthyroid sick syndrome / 中国小儿急救医学

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the association between serum thyroid level and prognosis of critically ill children with euthyroid sick syndrome(ESS).Methods:The clinical data and serum thyroid hormone levels of 176 children with ESS who were admitted to the Department of Pediatric Intensive Care Medicine at West China Second Hospital of Sichuan University from January 2015 to April 2021 were retrospectively collected.According to the prognosis, the children were divided into improved group and invalid group, as well as basic disease group and non basic disease group, and the differences of thyroid hormone between two groups were compared.The pediatric risk of mortality Ⅲ(PRISMⅢ) scores within 24 hours of admission were assessed, and the correlation between thyroid hormone level and PRISMⅢ score was analyzed.Results:Among 176 critically ill children with ESS, the most common diseases were sepsis(31.8%), severe pneumonia (23.8%) and heart failure(10.7%), respectively.The levels of free T3(FT3), T3, free T4(FT4) and T4 in invalid group were significantly lower than those in improved group ( P<0.05), but there was no statistical difference in thyroid-stimulating hormone(TSH) level between two groups( P>0.05). The levels of FT3, T3, FT4 and T4 were negatively correlated with PRISMⅢ score( r=-0.419, -0.459, -0.341, -0.383, respectively, P<0.05), and there was no correlation between TSH level and PRISMⅢ score ( P>0.05). The common underlying diseases of severe children with ESS were malnutrition(31/98), heart disease(30/98), hematologic neoplasms(15/98), and bronchopulmonary dysplasia(10/98). The median age of children in basic disease group was younger than that in non-basic disease group(0.7 years old vs. 2.0 years old, P<0.05); The proportion of children with underlying diseases in invalid group was 24.5%, which was significantly higher than that of children without underlying diseases (6.4%), and the difference was statistically significant ( P<0.05); There were no significant differences in the levels of FT3, T3, FT4, T4 and TSH between two groups ( P>0.05). Conclusion:In critically ill children, a variety of diseases can lead to ESS, and sepsis is the most common disease.Young children with underlying diseases should be more alert to ESS.The more severe the disease, the greater the decline of FT3, T3, FT4 and T4 levels.When low T3, T4 and TSH occur simultaneously, the prognosis of the children may be worse.Thyroid hormone level could be used as an indicator to evaluate the prognosis of critically ill children, which is needed further studies to explore.