Developmental defects of the thyroid gland: Relationship with advanced maternal age

Objective: developmental defects of the thyroid gland are the most frequent causes of permanent congenital hypothyroidism. this study aimed to investigate the epidemiological features of patients with thyroid dysgenesis (td). methods: medical records of 234 patients with td followed between the years 2008 and 2010 were evaluated retrospectively. diagnosis was made by ultrasonography. results: of 234 patients,120 (51.3%) were male and 114 (48.7%) were female. male to female ratio was 1.08 and there were no significant differences in epidemiologic and clinical findings between girls and boys. one hundred eighty-three patients (78.2%) were diagnosed as hypoplasia,35 (14.9%) as thyroid agenesis,4 as ectopic thyroid gland and 12 as hemiagenesis. the mean maternal age of the group was 28.9±0.4 years (range 18 to 45 years),which is significantly higher than the recently reported mean maternal ages for turkish women. conclusions: advanced maternal age was more prevalent in patients with td. our clinical and epidemiologic findings suggested no evidence of sexual dimorphism. ©journal of clinical research in pediatric endocrinology,published by galenos publishing.