Abstract
Objective: Determine differences in the epidemiology, clinical features and diagnosis of Graves-Basedow disease (GBD) in prepubertal and pubertal patients.
Method: Retrospective study analyzing medical records of 38 patients with GBD at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile between 1992-2007. Statistical analysis was performed with non parametric test of Mann-Whitney U and proportions difference with Fisher Test (SPSS 10.0 for Windows and Graphpad Prism 4).
Results: 21 patients were prepubertal and 17 were pubertal, with ages between 3 and 15,9 years. There were more girls than boys in both groups (5:2 and 15:2, respectively; p = 0.2). The most common clinical presentations were diffuse goiter, hyperactivity, frequent bowel movements, insomnia and heat intolerance. The prepubertal group had a taller stature (+2.4 SDS) compared with the pubertal group (+0.2 SDS; p = 0.03) and the most frequent ocular manifestation was exophthalmus in both groups.
Conclusions: We did not find any differences in the clinical presentations of Graves-Basedow disease among prepubertal and pubertal patients. Neuropsychiatric symptoms such as hyperactivity and insomnia, together with tall stature are common features in children with GBD.
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