Over the last year, I’ve seen paediatric patients with various presentations (alopecia, behavioural issues etc.) whose thyroid results have seemed out of whack e.g. TSH values in the 3s and 4s. I noticed as well that each pathology company provided a slightly altered reference range but on the whole they weren’t significantly different from expected adult results (0.4-4.8 mU/mL). It left me wondering if there should be in fact specific reference ranges for kids given the striking developmental endocrine milieu. So began a brief search of the scientific literature and lo and behold (!) there is such a thing and guess what? Kids’ thyroid results do differ from adult ones!! One piece of research that was intended to establish kids’ reference ranges was conducted in Austria, where routine results (serum TSH, fT3, and fT4) were collated from existing laboratory data of 2,194 serum samples from a hospital based population of children aged 1 day – 18 years (Kapelari et al. 2008 Pediatric reference intervals for thyroid hormone levels from birth to adulthood: a retrospective study. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2645400/)) Granted, these children are in hospital and yet deemed ‘healthy’ – which is a bit befuddling, however, the ranges found by these researchers were consistent with other previous studies in different cohorts, which adds strength to their findings. They revealed that TSH should be highest at birth and in the first month (e.g. 3.5 is the 50th percentile for this age group) and progressively decline throughout childhood and adolescence. So 50th percentile results across the age groups looks like this:
Age
TSH 50th percentile values
TSH Range
0-1mo
3.5
0.75-16.89
1-12mo
2.85
1.30-7.09
1-5yr
2.1
1.00-5.42
6-10yr
2.3
0.90-4.40
11-14yr
2.1
0.09-4.10
15-18yr
1.7
0.70-3.93
While there is a clear pattern of declining TSH with age throughout childhood, there were less changes across the ages with regard to fT4 and fT3 values, with the 50th percentile value for fT4 being approx. 15 pmol/L in all ages except 1mo and fT3 being high 5s to mid 6s. These are more robust values than we’ve come to expect and accept in many of our adult patients.
So next time you see thyroid results for a child – check out where they sit according to these percentiles, because where there’s smoke there’s typically a fire and further investigation of a marginally high TSH can reveal, antibodies, incorrect T4/T3 ratios and deficiencies of critical thyroid nutrients which might be central to helping resolve the health issues.
This week, care of Health Masters, I am delivering the first part of a 3 part webinar called ‘Clinical Case Analyses in Women with Anxiety’.
I originally wanted to call this brand new seminar series Dis-ease.
The idea was in response to the large number of female patients who come through my clinic door, presenting mostly self-diagnosed with anxiety. Some of these women absolutely do have anxiety disorders and both the aetiology & maintenance of these fit with the regular psycho-social theories, however, many of them, upon further investigation, have something biologically going on that constitutes a plausible alternative cause of their dis-ease.
That’s where the interesting journey begins as
you start to identify what’s the physical source of sensations they have reinterpreted/translated as ‘anxiety’ and
you start to address these physical drivers and relieve their negative psychological affect and then finally
you see how the discovery and recognition of a biological rather than a purely psychological explanation behind their ‘anxiety’ challenges women to rethink their self-story.
It’s big and thrilling stuff to be a part of and one of the most satisfying aspects of my practice.
This is the latest instalment in mental health education from me but from an entirely fresh perspective.
I’ve buried my head in the journals & leant heavily on my colleague who’s a psychologist to bring to you the first instalment this week – understanding the long list of differentials for patients who present with anxiety and how to approach the work up.
The following two weeks are dedicated to presenting 2 amazingly anxious female patients of mine – with case summaries, all the pathology results etc. so that you can see the journey I took with them and why.
I hope to ‘see’ you there.
If you’re not on the Health Masters mailing list already and want to check it out click here.
Professor Andrew Sinclair, a leading Australian nutrition scientist from Deakin University, has warned that some snack foods on Australian supermarket shelves contain high levels of trans fats acids (TFAs) and is calling for mandatory labelling of TFAs in processed foods.
Societies promotion of happiness and happiness campaigns puts expectations on people of how they should feel. Expectations of happiness may be making sad people feel worse.
Upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) are a normal part of childhood that often disturb sleep, parents and children alike, but a simple dose of honey may just be the remedy needed. A recent study published in Pediatrics (Aug 6 2012) has confirmed that honey is more effective than placebo in controlling nocturnal cough and poor sleep in children with URTI. (more…)
Parents should be aware persistent snoring is not normal in children and should be investigated. Researchers, whose results appeared in the journal Pediatrics May 2012 found that two- and three-year olds who snored loudly at least a couple of times per week tended to have more behavioural problems, especially hyperactivity, depression and inattention.
The limitations of serum B12 testing have been reported for some time.
When testing for deficiency, Serum B12 does not give an accurate picture unless there is an overt deficiency and even then not consistently. This is because the majority (approx.70%) of B12 in the blood is attached to haptocorrin, which is unable to enter cells, and is termed inactive B12 (Lloyd-Write et al 2003).
