IMPACT OF AUTOIMMUNE THYROIDITIS IN PREGNANT WOMEN ON THEIR BABIES' HEALTH STATUS

Objective. To study the impact of autoimmune thyroiditis (AIT) in pregnant women on their infants’ health indicators in the early neonatal period and within the first year of life. Subjects and methods. A group of 72 pregnant women with AIT was examined. The investigators studied pregnancy outcomes and their babies’ health indicators: anthropometric data, neonatality features, perinatal central nervous system (CNS) lesion, intrauterine infection and somatic diseases, the incidence of acute diseases during the first year of life, and thyroid ultrasound findings in infants aged 1 year. Results. The significant rate of hypotrophic intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) was noted in full-term neonatal babies born to mothers with AIT, which correlated with antithyroid antibodies and the presence of hypothyroidism during pregnancy. There was a high prevalence of intrauterine infection among the babies of mothers with AIT. Comparison of groups of AIT patients who had undergone early and late iodine prevention established the higher rate of thyroid structural changes in the infants whose mothers had received late iodine prevention during pregnancy. Conclusion. AIT in pregnant women has no significant impact on the anthropometric parameters of neonates, the rate of perinatal CNS lesion and somatic diseases in babies when hypothyroidism is adequately corrected during pregnancy. The high level of maternal blood antithyroid antibodies is a risk factor for hypotrophic IUGR. The babies born to mothers with AIT are a group at high risk for intrauterine infection and belong to a category of frequently ill children. Inadequate iodine prevention in pregnant women with AIT negatively affects the thyroid in their children, which is shown by the heterogeneous echostructure and enhanced vascularization of the thyroid parenchyma at echographic study.

autoimmune thyroiditis, pregnancy, baby