Abstract
Endemic cretinism is a complex syndrome involving a triad of severe sensory, motor and cognitive defects. The condition is related to iodine deficiency1 and it can be prevented by iodine prophylaxis of the mother before or very early in pregnancy 2,3. The frequency of goitre in populations at risk for endemic cretinism is also extremely high. The Pan American Health Organisation 4 defined endemic cretinism in terms of the following clinical manifestations; mental deficiency together with either (a) a predominant neurological syndrome consisting of defects of hearing and speech and with characteristic disorders of stance and gait of varying degrees, or (b) predominant hypothyroidism and stunted growth. Follow-up studies of the controlled trial of iodinated oil2 revealed a relationship between maternal iodine status during pregnancy and the performance of children on a number of motor tasks5 This observation is supported by the results of a comparison of children from a severely iodine deficient village with children from a control village in Central Java6 The children from the iodine deficient village were generally poorer on a number of measures of motor competence. Similar differences have also been found between children from iodine deficient and non-deficient villages in Spain7. In Ecuador a significant difference was found on Stanford-Binet scores between two groups of children one group having been born to mothers given an iodine supplement8 . The children whose mothers received a supplement did better.
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© 1989 Plenum Press, New York
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Connolly, K.J., Pharoah, P.O.D. (1989). Iodine Deficiency, Maternal Thyroxine Levels in Pregnancy and Developmental Disorders in the Children. In: DeLong, G.R., Robbins, J., Condliffe, P.G. (eds) Iodine and the Brain. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0765-5_28
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