The immune status of preschool children with diffuse enlargement of the thyroid under ecologically adverse conditions

Abstract

A total of 434 children aged 4 to 7 living under ecologically adverse conditions were examined. Diffuse enlargement of the thyroid was detected in 35% of children (I degree in 62%, II degree in 38%), with equal frequency in boys and girls. This research was aimed at assessing the immune status of children with enlargement of the thyroid of different degree and at estimation of the functional activity of the thyroid by clinical and laboratory signs (T3, T4, TSH, whose concentrations were measured by standard radioimmunoassay and enzyme immunoassay). Preschool children with diffuse enlargement of the thyroid presented with immunocyte depression in the blood, which was evidently a result of thyroid hormone deficiency at the level of cellular metabolism, because the function of tire enlarged thyroid was frequently reduced, that is, compensated or decompensated hypothyroid state was present. Immunologic disturbances depended on the degree of diffuse enlargement of the gland and on the presence and degree of thyroid activity reduction. A close correlation between blood T4 and TSH levels and immunity status parameters was detected.