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Is my newborn baby having hypothyroidism?
Q: My 13 days old newborn baby seems to be having hypothyroidism and now she has been given Thyroxine 0.025 mg daily. A thyroid test done on 6th day showed the results: T4 - 1.97 ng/dL (ref. Range - 0.8-2.0), T3 - 4.99 pg/mL (ref. range - 1.4-4.0), TSH - 13.76 uIU/mL (ref. range - 0.3-5.0). Is she having high TSH value? Is this condition called congenital hypothyroidism? What are the other tests need to be done to confirm hypothyroidism?
A:To make a diagnosis of hypothyroidism, the steps are:
- Screening TSH if >30 (Most of the developed countries do TSH as screening test for all the babies born)
- Repeat TSH with FT4
- If FT4 low then start treatment immediately
- If FT4 normal then repeat tests after 2 weeks
So finally if these tests are done for the first time then your child is very unlikely to have hypothyroidism and she should not be treated and a repeat test should be done after few weeks.