Fetal Thyroid Ultrasound And Fetal Thyroid Hormones

Overview

Non invasive methods: maternal antithyroid antibodies and ultrasound measurement of the fetal thyroid gland could be an important tool for detecting fetal thyroid dysfunction in mothers with autoimmune thyroid disease.

Autoimmune thyroid disease complicates 5-20% unselected pregnancies. The crucial impacting factor on the pregnancy outcomes in mothers with autoimmune thyroid disease is the thyroxine level changes. But, fetal hypo or hyperthyroidism can be found in treated pregnant women with autoimmune thyroid disease, even when their thyroid hormones are in normal range, because thyroid antibodies, antithyroid drugs and iodine pass the placenta. Our previous results show that high fetal free thyroxine (fT4) levels measured by cordocentesis are unexpectedly frequent in women with autoimmune thyroid disease, including maternal autoimmune hypo- and hyperthyroidism. Increasing awareness that even some mild fetal disorder can have an impact on later neurophysiologic development and the health of an individual makes the recognition and therapy of fetal hypo- or hyperthyroidism an increasingly significant domain of interest. According to our results, fetal fT4 concentrations did not correlate neither with dose of medication nor with ultrasound biometric parameters; the range for maternal thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) correlated predominantly with normal fT4 can not be marked off. The type and concentration of antithyroid antibodies might have some prognostic value. There is a growing list of publications referring to the ultrasound measurement of the fetal thyroid as an important tool for detecting fetal thyroid dysfunction. Fetal thyroid measurement became a part of the clinical guidelines for pregnancies complicated with maternal thyroid disease.

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