1. ENDEMIC COGNITIVE AND NEUROMOTOR DEFICIT IN SCHOOLCHILDREN OF IODINE DEFICIENT AREAS
- Author
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F. De Luca, M. Scaffidi, S Battiato, Francesco Trimarchi, M. Sidoti, M. D. Finocchiaro, Domenica Crupi, and Francesco Vermiglio
- Subjects
endocrine system ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Pediatrics ,Goiter ,endocrine system diseases ,Endemic Cretinism ,business.industry ,Bone age ,Hyporeflexia ,medicine.disease ,Short stature ,Iodine deficiency ,Endocrinology ,Internal medicine ,Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health ,medicine ,Euthyroid ,medicine.symptom ,business ,Cretinism - Abstract
Mental defects were found by Bender-Gestalt test, Santucci method, in 33/192 (17.1 %) euthyroid schoolchildren born between 1975 - 1980 in an endemic goiter and cretinism area in which goiter prevalence was 79% and daily iodine urinary excretion was 22.3 +/- 16.4 mcg.just in the years in which studied children were born. These defects are variously associated with goiter (36.4%), short stature (15.1), bone age retardation (21.2%) and with minor neuromotor disorders including hyporeflexia (21.2), hyperreflexia/clonus of the rotula and or foot (30%), dyslalia (6.1%). These findings could be considered as minor manifestations of neurological endemic cretinism. It must be noted that these defects are not only the clue of that severe endemia since the extension of file study to another community of 119 schoolchildren living in an area with a goiter prevalence of 59% revealed a 12.6% children with comparable mental and neuromotor defects. Despite an actual sharp decrease in goiter prevalence in both areas (79-44%, 59-26%), these iodine deficiency disorders seem to persist hitherto. If neurological damage is due to iodine deficiency “per se” or to maternal hypothyroxinemia is still unclear.
- Published
- 1988
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