title: A study for maternal thyroid hormone deficiency during the first half of pregnancy in China.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Maternal thyroid hormone deficiency is the most common disorder of thyroid function during pregnancy and can influence the outcome for mother and foetus. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of thyroid hormone deficiency during the first half of pregnancy in iodine sufficient areas of China.
  
  
  METHODS
  Four thousand eight hundred pregnant women from 10 hospitals during the first 20 weeks of gestation were enrolled in this study. All sera obtained from pregnant women were measured for thyrotropin, free thyroxine and thyroid peroxidase antibody. Screening for thyroid hormone deficiency was performed on pregnant women using gestational age-specific reference intervals or non-pregnant population reference intervals.
  
  
  RESULTS
  With gestational age-specific reference intervals as the criterion, the prevalence of subclinical hypothyroidism at 4, 8, 12,16 and 20 weeks of gestation was 4.59%, 6.15%, 4.68%, 4.53% and 5.96%, respectively, and the prevalence of hypothyroxinaemia was 3.69%, 1.11%, 2.92%, 1.29% and 2.29%, respectively. Different prevalence was obtained when non-pregnant population reference intervals was used as the criterion. If non-pregnant population reference intervals were used, the percentage of potentially misclassified cases of subclinical hypothyroidism were 0.18%, 2.85%, 4.1%, 3.24%, and 3.21%, respectively, and 3.45%, 0.66%, 2.34%, 1.29%, and 1.83%, respectively, in potentially misclassified cases of hypothyroxinaemia.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The percentage of potentially misclassified cases of subclinical hypothyroidism and hypothyroxinaemia in pregnant women decreased by using the gestational age-specific reference intervals as a diagnostic criteria during the first half of pregnancy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, First Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China.
authors.forename: Z Y
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Shan
authors.forename: Y Y
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: W P
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Teng
authors.forename: X H
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: C Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: W W
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: W W
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Y B
authors.initials: YB
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: C L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: H M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007037:Hypothyroidism / Q000097:blood*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000097:blood*; D012016:Reference Values; D013960:Thyroid Function Tests / Q000379:methods; D013961:Thyroid Gland / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013974:Thyroxine / Q000172:deficiency*
chemical_list: D013974:Thyroxine