Mìžnarodnij Endokrinologìčnij Žurnal (Mar 2022)

Thyroid homeostasis in obesity children

  • T.V. Sorokman,
  • N.O. Popelyuk

DOI
https://doi.org/10.22141/2224-0721.18.1.2022.1143
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 18, no. 1
pp. 36 – 40

Abstract

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Background. Due to the rapid increase in the preva­lence of childhood obesity in Europe in recent years, various initiatives and actions have been launched in response to this alar­ming tendency. Over the last decade, the question of the interaction between obesity and thyroid pathology has been the most controversial. The study was aimed to assess the state of thyroid supply in overweight children. Materials and methods. Out of 936 people, 160 people aged 7 to 18 years with overweight (OW) and obesity were selected for a detailed study. The levels of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), free triiodothyronine, and thyroxine (fT3, fT4) in serum were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results. More than half of the children who were selected for the study had both diffuse nontoxic goiter (DNG) both in boys and girls (51.4 %) with a predominance of thyroid volume corresponding to the first degree of goiter. Only in a small number of children with OW and obesity (14 out of 105 peop­le, 13.3 %), TSH levels were shifted toward its increase (4.31–4.98 μIU/ml), and when ­using TSH/fT4, 20 (11.5 %) children showed signs of laboratory hypothyroidism with a slight predominance of hyperthyrotropinemia in boys (18.5 %) compared to girls (15.6 %). The frequency of TSH levels > 3.0 μIU/ml ele­vated with increasing age of patients from 12.9 % among children aged 7–9 years to 16.6 % in the group of patients aged 10–13 years and 15.1 % in children aged 14–18 years without significant differences by gender. Children with OW and obesity were more likely to have higher TSH values than children with DNG and normal body weight. Conclusions. Diffuse nontoxic goiter is more common in children with OW and obesity (51.2 %) than in children with normal body weight (21.7 %). The assessment of the age of the functional state of the thyroid gland in these children did not reveal significant changes in peripheral thyroid hormones, but in 11.5 % of people, TSH/fT4 ranged from 0.19 to 0.29 and 13.3 % of people had signs of subclinical hypothyroidism. This indicates the need to monitor the functional state of the thyroid gland in overweight and obese children.

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