Clinical features of children patients diagnosis with autoimmune thyroiditis

This study aimed to examine the clinical characteristics of children diagnosed with autoimmune thyroiditis in a tertiary health center. Within the scope of the study, the clinical characteristics of 155 children, 19 of whom were boys, with a median age of 13.1 years (1.2-17.9) who were diagnosed with autoimmune thyroiditis in the endocrinology outpatient clinic between 01.01.2014 and 31.12.2022, were retrospectively examined from hospital files. Children were grouped according to their thyroid function and pubertal status at presentation. When the clinical features of admission were evaluated, the most common complaint at presentation was neck swelling in 36/155 (23.2%), but a significant number of children, 60/155 (38.7%), had no clinical signs or symptoms. The majority of children were pubertal (76.0%) and ≥10 years old (78.1%) at presentation. According to thyroid function, 62 of the children (40.0%) were subclinical hypothyroid, 52 were euthyroid (33.5%), 35 were overt hypothyroid (22.6%), and 3 were subclinical hyperthyroid (1.9%), and 3 were found to have overt hyperthyroidism (1.9%). While 85.8% of children diagnosed with autoimmune thyroiditis were anti-TPO positive and 74.2% were anti-Tg antibody positive, the frequency of those with at least one antibody positivity was 144/155 (92.9%). Findings compatible with thyroiditis were detected in 93.1% of those who underwent thyroid ultrasonography. Of the 35 children with overt hypothyroidism at admission, 3 of them were euthyroid and one was subclinical hypothyroidism during follow-up; of the 9 children with subclinical hypothyroidism for whom treatment was not initiated, 4 were observed to be euthyroid during follow-up. With the data of this study, it was concluded that thyroid functions in children diagnosed with autoimmune thyroiditis may vary over time and that they should be monitored periodically in this respect. Key words: Autoimmune thyroiditis, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, autoimmunity, thyroid dysfunction.