Hypothyroidism in children/adolescents. Clinical and hormonal profiles.

This paper describes the clinical, hormonal and radiologic profiles in 282 children evaluated for hypothyroidism. Short stature, mental retardation or puberal disturbances were often the presenting features in the older age group, whereas in the 1-5 years age group medical opinion was usually sought for symptomatology suggestive of thyroid hypofunction. Children in the 0-1 year group were suspected on the basis of psychomotor dysfunction. Skeletal immaturity was found in 93.0% of patients with overt hypothyroidism and in 36.6% cases with normal thyroid profiles but associated with malnutrition. High TSH levels were noted in 70.9% of the cases studied. 4.9% and 7.3% patients with normal TSH had low T3, and T4 levels respectively. FSH, testosterone and PRL levels were also affected in some patients with overt hypothyroidism. Therapeutic responses based on at least 1 year follow up were available in 170 cases. The results are discussed.

Metabolic and endocrine studies in women using norethindrone acetate implant.

Subcutaneously administered implant-D containing 40 mg of Norethindrone acetate in a single silastic implant was offered to 79 subjects who desired spacing of their family. The effect of constant release of steroid from this device on metabolic and endocrine functions was studied. Each subject in the pretreatment state served as her own control. The device was removed at 8 months initially and subsequently at 5-6 months. The clinical acceptability of this method was fairly high. The results reported in this study show that Norethindrone acetate administered in this way did not cause any adverse reactions on endocrine and metabolic functions as gauged by the parameters analysed.