Journal of AdvancedMedical and Dental Sciences Research

Congenital hypothyroidism (CH) can be the common causes of permanent mental and physical disability if undetected and remain untreated in the neonatal. The aim of this study is to measure the thyroid hormone levels mainly T4 and TSH in normal newborns and low birth weight babies within 4 month of age which will help in the early detection of hypo functional state of thyroid gland and thus treat accordingly. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A total of 100 children below the age group of 4 months were taken in this study. Out of which 50 were normal neonates as control and 50 were known cases of low birth weight neonates. Aseptically, 1ml of blood was drawn from the antecubital vein from each patient. The blood samples were then transported to the central laboratory within an hour of collection for analysis of serum TSH and serum FT4. Statistical analysis of collected data has been done by using SPSS (16.0). P value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. RESULT: Statistically significant differences were observed in the mean serum TSH level of controls (3.57± 1.5 µIU/ml) and neonates with low birth weight (5.2± 2.7 µIU/ml). (p = 0.002). Statistically significant differences were observed in the mean serum Ft4 level of controls (14.1± 3.1pg/ml) and neonates with low birth weight (8.9 ± 2.7 pg//ml). (p = 0.03). After applying Pearson’s correlation coefficient it was found that there is a negative correlation between serum TSH and FT4 level (r =-0.310) in cases. Whereas, in control it do not shows any significant correlation. CONCLUSION: From this study it can be concluded that preterm or low birth weight neonates are more likely to develop hypothyroidism i.e. high TSH level as compared to normal neonates and need to be diagnosed for FT4 and TSH level. Keywords: Hypothyroidism, low birth weight neonates, thyroid hormone.