Maternal hypothyroxinaemia is a risk factor for expressive language delay in early childhood, a Dutch study shows.
“Even in pregnant women with normal TSH levels, low free T4 (FT4) concentrations affect fetal brain development and put children at risk for subsequent neurodevelopmental deficits,” the study authors wrote in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
The researchers, from the Erasmus Medical University Centre, Rotterdam, assessed almost 4000 children and their mothers. They defined mild and severe maternal hypothyroxinaemia in pregnant women with normal TSH levels at 13 weeks gestation (sd = 1.7), as FT4 concentrations below the 10th and 5th percentile. The children’s expressive vocabulary was assessed at 18 months and 30 months.
Results of the study showed that maternal...
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