[Hyperthyroidism in children. Experience in internal medicine in Mali]

Thyroid pathology is frequent in Mali, which is an endemic zone for goiter. But this pathology rarely occurs in children. The purpose of our study was to characterize this illness among children in Mali.

We report on patients aged less than 15-year old who presented with clinical signs and symptoms with hyperthyroidism at the medicine service at Hospital de Point G from January 1999 and December 2005 to determine the characteristics of hyperthyroidism.

The frequency was 9.6 per thousand (38/3972), with an average age of 12.5+/-3.34-year. The sex ratio was 3 girls/1 boys. The most common symptoms were tachycardia (n=30, 78.9%), palpitations (n=15, 34.4%). 31 patients (81.5%) presented with exophthalmoses, 93.5% being bilateral. Weight loss was present in 31.5% (n=12). Goiter was present in 37 patients (97.4%). The goiter was diffuse in 27 patients (73%) and nodular in 10 (27.%). The presence of goiter caused signs of compression in the neck in half of the cases: dyspnea and dysphonia were the most common consequences. TSH less than 0.05 microUI/1 was used to confirm the diagnosis. Graves's disease was the most common cause (n=32, 84.2%), followed by toxic adenoma (n=4, 10.5%). Other causes included toxic multinodular goiter and thyroiditis. Etiologies were independent of sex and age: (p=0.95). All patients were started on medical therapy upon diagnosis. 7 patients (18.4%) were lost to follow-up during the 6 months of treatment. Remission was obtained in 26 patients (83.9%), and relapse occurred in 5 patients (16.1%).

The frequency of hyperthyroidism in children in Mali is a problem in a goiter endemic zone like Mali. Poor general health in children and signs and symptoms of neck compression are markers of progressive disease.