prevalence of goiter and thyroid disorders in diabetic children

diabetes mellitus is the most common endocrine disorders in children. there is a close association between diabetes and other autoimmune disease especially thyroid disorders. as many as 20 percent of insulin dependent diabetic patients may have thyroid antibodies in their serum. the prevalence is 2-20 times greater than observed in normal populations. in this study, 122 patients with diabetes mellitus type i who referred to institute of endocrine & metabolism and private office during a 3 years period were studied. a complete history was taken and physical examination was done in al patients by endocrinologist. the diabetic patients due to major thalassemia excluded from this study. the grading of the goiter was determined by who classification and t4 and tsh were measured by ria method in all patients. all patients were on insulin treatment. there were 64 girls (52.4 percent) and 58 boys (47.6 percent) in 2-16 years age group (mean age 11.2 years). the mean duration of diabetes was 4.2 years. prevalence of goiter was 53.2 percent and 7.3 percent of patients with goiter had hypothyroidism and 1.6 percent, had hypothyroidism. most of the patients with goiter were euthyroid (91.9 percent). the patients with hypothyroidism had marked growth retardation and frequent episodes of hypoglycemia. the findings of this study indicate that the risk of development of goiter and thyroid disorders is higher in our diabetic patients and decelebration of growth and brittle diabetes may be due to thyroid disorders. it is suggested that all of the diabetic children should be screened yearly for thyroid disorders.