epidemiological assessment of congenital hypothyroidism in ilam province between 2005 -2011

introduction: congenital hypothyroidism is the most common cause of mental retardation in the world. the presence of hypothyroidism in fetal is lead to abnormalities in major organs, including nervous system and central skeleton. aim of this study was to investigate epidemiologic situation of neonatal hypothyroidism in ilam province between 2005 -2011. materials and methods: this was a cross-sectional retrospective study. the number of 27258 infants was born in ilam province from 2005 till 2011. among these infants who were enterned to screening program of congenital hypothyroidism, about 162 cases were identified as congenital hypothyroidism patients. the data were analyzed through spss software. results: from identified patients, 95 infants (58.9%) were male. incidence rate was 5 in 1000 live birth. there was a significant correlation between birth weight and t4 level (p = 0.02). the analysis showed that there is a significant relationship between gender of neonate and tsh level (p = 0.009). conclusion: prevalence of congenital hypothyroidism in ilam province compare to other parts of country was high. due to the importance of hypothyroidism in mental retardation, encouraging of parents to attend screening test seems to be necessary.