Paeds: Endocrinology (2) Flashcards
Causes of delayed puberty with short stature
- Turner’s syndrome
- Prader-Willi syndrome
- Noonan’s syndrome
Causes of delayed puberty with normal stature
- polycystic ovarian syndrome
- androgen insensitivity
- Kallman’s syndrome
- Klinefelter’s syndrome
Ages for classification of late puberty (both genders)
Ages at which a girl and a boy may be classified as ‘extreme’ delay in puberty
Girl → >14 y old
Boy → >16 y old
What’s the danger of congenital hypothyroidism?
If not diagnosed and treated within the first four weeks it causes irreversible cognitive impairment
Features of congenital hypothyroidism
- prolonged neonatal jaundice
- delayed mental & physical milestones
- short stature
- puffy face
- macroglossia
- hypotonia
Screening for congenital hypothyroidism
Children are screened at 5-7 days using the heel prick test
What’s a secondary hypothyroidism?
- where is the problem
- levels of TFTs
- problem is at the hypothalamus or pituitary gland
- Low levels of plasma TSH
- Low levels of plasma Thyroxine
*Requires the levels of FT4 and TSH for diagnosis
Would UK Neonatal Screening Programme pick up secondary hypothyroidism?
No.
If there is clinical suspicion of hypothyroidism, a full assessment of thyroid function is mandatory
How testing for congenital hypothyroidism is done in the UK?
- Midwife obtains sample on day 5-8 regardless of health and sends blood spot card by 1st class post clearly identified as newborn screening blood spot
- Laboratory analyses for blood spot TSH
- Each laboratory defines a cut off point which identifies an abnormal result
- Normal result, parents informed
- Abnormal result referred to clinician for confirmation
Causes of hypothyroidism in children
The most common cause of hypothyroidism in children (juvenile hypothyroidism) is autoimmune thyroiditis.
Other causes include
- post total-body irradiation (e.g. in a child previous treated for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia)
- iodine deficiency (the most common cause in the developing world)
Structure of adrenal gland
How to assess BMI in children?
- BMI assessment more difficult in children than adults
- body mass index (BMI) varies with age
- BMI percentile charts are therefore needed to make an accurate assessment
What to do next if BMI of a child is at:
- 91st centile or above
- 98th centile or above
- 91st centile or above → consider tailored clinical intervention if BMI
- 98th centile or above → consider assessing for comorbidities
Causes of obesity in children
- lifestyle factors → the most common cause of obesity in children
- growth hormone deficiency
- hypothyroidism
- Down’s syndrome
- Cushing’s syndrome
- Prader-Willi syndrome