Neuropsychological development during the first two years in children with congenital hypothyroidism screened at birth: the Cuban experience

Abstract Sixty children with congenital hypothyroidism (CH) screened at birth and early treated were developmentally assessed three times during their first 2 years (average ages 200,313 and 447 days) by the Brunet-Lezine Maturity Scale. These children also received psychomotor stimulation by their parents according to instructions given to them. For each child with CH there was a pair of healthy matched controls (CTR) whose data were averaged and used as single ones. For each subject the mean of these as well as the slope were calculated in order to know the general pattern of the development quotients (DQ). The data show that although the DQ of the CH were with normal ranges, they had significantly lower scores on the psychomotor scales (postural control and eye-hand coordination) than CTR. As related to language there were no significant differences in the mean DQ; however, the significant differences in the slope indicate that the trend in CH is toward a decrease in these values as time progresses. Analysis of covariance shows that the strongest predictor of development in CH is the age at which treatment begins.