Cretinism

Cretinism

Cretinism is caused by extreme hypothyroidism during fetal life, infancy, or childhood. This condition is char-acterized especially by failure of body growth and by mental retardation. It results from congenital lack of a thyroid gland (congenital cretinism), from failure of the thyroid gland to produce thyroid hormone because of a genetic defect of the gland, or from iodine lack in the diet (endemic cretinism). The severity of endemic cre-tinism varies greatly, depending on the amount of iodine in the diet, and whole populaces of an endemic geo-graphic iodine-deficient soil area have been known to have cretinoid tendencies.

A neonate without a thyroid gland may have normal appearance and function because it was supplied with some (but usually not enough) thyroid hormone by the mother while in utero, but a few weeks after birth, the neonate’s movements become sluggish and both physi-cal and mental growth begin to be greatly retarded. Treatment of the neonate with cretinism at any time with adequate iodine or thyroxine usually causes normal return of physical growth, but unless the cre-tinism is treated within a few weeks after birth, mental growth remains permanently retarded. This results from retardation of the growth, branching, and myelination of the neuronal cells of the central nervous system at this critical time in the normal development of the mental powers.

Skeletal growth in the child with cretinism is charac-teristically more inhibited than is soft tissue growth. As a result of this disproportionate rate of growth, the soft tissues are likely to enlarge excessively, giving the child with cretinism an obese, stocky, and short appearance. Occasionally the tongue becomes so large in relation to the skeletal growth that it obstructs swallowing and breathing, inducing a characteristic guttural breathing that sometimes chokes the child.