ABSTRACT

Chronic autoimmune thyroiditis is the most common cause of thyroiditis among children and adolescents. This study was planned in order to determine the epidemiologic, clinical and laboratory characteristics of children and adolescents with chronic autoimmune thyroiditis. Ninety-seven subjects aged 5–18 years and who were followed up at our clinic from 2001 to 2007 were included in the study. Eighty-seven (89.75%) were girls and 10 (10.3%) were boys. Median age of the subjects was 12.40±2.97 years. It was seen that 86 (88.7%) subjects were diagnosed at puberty and 11 (11.3%) at childhood. Nearly half of the patients had hypothyroidism at the time of diagnosis and they were given L-thyroxine. When the subjects were tested for autoantibodies, 73.2% were anti-thyroglobulin antibody positive, 79.4% were anti-thyroperoxidase autoantibody positive. Our subjects were followed for a period of 3.41±1.24 years. At this period, the median L-thyroxine dose was 25 μgr/day (25-125 μgr/day). When the families of the subjects were tested, 20 mothers and five fathers had chronic autoimmune thyroiditis. Overall, the diagnosis of autoimmune thyroiditis can be more easily detected by detailed physical examination and laboratory studies.