key: cord-1029498-wreowkhk
authors: Shidid, Sarah; Kohlhoff, Stephan; Smith‐Norowitz, Tamar A.
title: Thyroid stimulating hormone levels in children before and during the coronavirus disease‐19 pandemic
date: 2022-04-01
journal: Health Sci Rep
DOI: 10.1002/hsr2.579
sha: ecb10df73f22776ae43adfc4220cd54d75770a3b
doc_id: 1029498
cord_uid: wreowkhk

nan

SARS-CoV-2 enters cells using the angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE-2) receptor, expressed by the thyroid. 2 Prior literature reported low levels of triiodothyronine (TT3) and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) in adult patients with COVID-19. 3 However, levels of TSH in children during the pandemic are unknown. The aim of this study was to identify the frequency of abnormal TSH levels in children who were screened for thyroid disease during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to prepandemic levels.

A retrospective chart analysis was performed on patients in an outpatient pediatric practice located in the Kensington neighborhood 5 It is unknown what caused the observed pattern and/ or how significant it was. Children were not evaluated. In this study, 2020; however, it is unknown whether COVID-19 might have been circulating in the community in the months before March 2020. While there was an increase in numbers of TSH tests ordered and corresponding abnormal test between 2020 and 2021, the practice had expanded with an increase in patient population and reflected in number of tests.

The percentage of abnormal tests remained constant. TSH levels may also differ according to ethnicity and race; discrepancies may exist between Asian, White, Black, and Hispanics.

Thus, this finding may only reflect one specific community representation, and may not apply to non-White children. There might have been selection bias; systematic COVID-19 testing was not performed.

Conclusions of this study may be limited to people for whom testing was requested or indicated. While we did not find any association of abnormal TSH test with SARS CoV-2 antibodies, future examination of TSH levels in larger studies of children during the COVID-19 pandemic is warranted. 

Writing: Original draft preparation: Tamar Smith-Norowitz. Writing: Review and editing

Thyroid function before, during and after COVID-19

Detection of SARS-CoV-2 receptor ACE-2 mRNA in thyroid cells: a clue for COVID-19-related subacute thyroiditis

Thyroid function abnormalities in COVID-19 patients

COVID-19: Data

Thyroid function analysis in 50 patients with COVID-19: a retrospective study

Thyroid stimulating hormone levels in children before and during the coronavirus disease-19 pandemic

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

This study was exempt from institutional ethical approval.

Tamar A. Smith-Norowitz http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8204-6728