title: Thyroid function and serum IGF-1 in children before and after liver transplantation.
abstract: We report results of serum thyroid hormone and IGF-1 concentrations in 20 children, 1.2 to 13.6 years old, with various degrees of chronic liver dysfunction (CLD), before and after successful orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Ten children presented with moderate chronic liver disease (CLD-M) with prothrombin time (PT) > 50% and serum albumin concentration > 3 g/dl; 7 children had severe chronic liver disease (CLD-S) with PT < 50% and serum albumin concentration < 3 g/dl; and 7 children who had received an OLT, who had normal liver function at the time of the study. Four of the latter group were also studied before OLT. Patients with CLD-M had normal mean +/- SD serum levels of total T3 (2.0 +/- 0.7 nmol/l), total T4 (125 +/- 25.9 nmol/l) and fT4 concentrations (16 +/- 2.8 pmol/l). In contrast, children with CLD-S showed a significant decrease in thyroid hormones together with normal basal TSH values (T3 0.8 +/- 0.0 nmol/l; T4 45.6 +/- 19.5 nmol/l; fT4 7.4 +/- 1.1 pmol/l; TSH 3.8 +/- 0.9 mU/l). Patients who received a successful OLT showed mean peripheral thyroid hormone concentrations significantly higher than CLD-S patients (T3 1.7 +/- 0.7 nmol/l, p < 0.005; T4 92.8 +/- 18.2 nmol/l, p < 0.001; fT4 14.5 +/- 3.1 pmol/l, p < 0.001). A significant correlation was found between thyroid hormone levels and PT or serum albumin. In the nine patients with CLD-M and CLD-S in whom serum IGF-1 concentration was measured, values found (mean +/- SD 0.08 +/- 0.05 U/ml) were below the 95% confidence limit of matched controls.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Pediatria, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pasqualini
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fainstein-Day
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gutman
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Balzaretti
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: D'Agostino
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007334:Insulin-Like Growth Factor I / Q000378:metabolism*; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000628:therapy; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D011517:Prothrombin Time; D013960:Thyroid Function Tests; D013961:Thyroid Gland / Q000502:physiology*; D013963:Thyroid Hormones / Q000097:blood
chemical_list: D013963:Thyroid Hormones; D007334:Insulin-Like Growth Factor I