Study of Prevalence of Hypothyroidism in Pregnancy

Thyroid hormones of the fetus exclusively comes from mothers in early pregnancy, indicating that maternal hypothyroidism has a close-knit relationship with fetal growth and neuropsychological development. Hypothyroidism is one of the most common endocrinopathies during pregnancy. During early pregnancy the foetus is totally dependent on maternal thyroid hormone supply. Thyroid hormone is critical for foetal brain and intellectual development and some preventable conditions like abruption, pre-eclampsia etc. which produce morbidity and pose special risk for pregnancy and the developing foetus. A total 50 cases were included in the study. The age ranged from 18 to 40 years . Serum TSH value was tested in 1st trimester between 6-10 weeks period of gestation for all pregnant women. The estimation of free T4 levels was done to reclassify those with thyroid dysfunction as subclinical or overt hypothyroidism. The overall prevalence of hypothyroidism in pregnancy is quite high (18%) , 12 % were having Subclinical Hypothyroidism and 06 % had Overt Hypothyroidism .