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Low Thyroid Levels During Pregnancy Increases Risk of

Neurological Development Complications in Infants, Study Says

Women who experience low thyroid hormone levels during pregnancy have an increased risk of delivering infants with neurological development complications, according to a report published in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics, Reuters Health reports (Brown, Reuters Health, 1/23).

Libbe Kooistra and researchers from the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, compared a group of 108 infants born to women with low thyroid hormone levels with a group of 96 infants born to women with normal hormone levels.

Researchers assessed maternal thyroid function at 12, 24 and 32 weeks' gestation, and they used the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale to evaluate infants' neural development at three weeks of age (Kooistra et al., Pediatrics, 1/1). The results show that infants born to women with low thyroid hormone levels at 12 weeks' gestation had substantially lower scores on some parts of the NBAS compared with infants born to mothers with normal levels.

However, maternal thyroid function at 24 and 32 weeks' gestation seemed not to affect infant outcomes, Reuters Health reports (Reuters Health, 1/23). According to Kooistra, the data suggest that thyroid hormone deficiency during pregnancy "constitutes a serious risk factor for neurodevelopmental difficulties" that can be identified in infants as young as three weeks of age (Pediatrics, 1/1) . Kooistra said that routine thyroid testing in pregnant women currently is being debated, adding that in light of the study's findings and previous data that associate low maternal thyroid hormone levels with obstetric problems and hyperactivity, routine testing might be beneficial (Reuters Health, 1/23).

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