Investigation of influencing factors and reference ranges for thyroid function in hospitalized preterm infants at the age of 7 days

Abstract:

Objective To investigate the influencing factors and reference ranges for thyroid function in preterm infants at the age of 7 days, with the aim of avoiding unnecessary clinical reexamination and intervention.Methods A retrospective analysis was performed for the data of 685 preterm infants from January 2020 to January 2023. According to gestational age and birth weight, they were divided into a high-risk group (gestational age <34 weeks or birth weight<2 000 g; 228 infants) and a low-risk group (gestational age ≥34 weeks and birth weight ≥2 000 g;457 infants). The influencing factors for thyroid function were analyzed, and 95% reference range was calculated.Results Gestational age, birth weight, birth season, sex, and assisted reproduction were the influencing factors for thyroid function (P<0.05). For the preterm infants in the high-risk group, the reference ranges of free triiodothyronine (FT3), free thyroxine (FT4), total triiodothyronine (TT3), total thyroxine (TT4), and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) were 2.79-5.40 pmol/L, 8.80-25.64 pmol/L, 0.80-2.15 nmol/L, 50.06-165.09 nmol/L, and 0.80-18.57 μIU/mL, respectively. For those in the low-risk group, the reference ranges of these indicators were 3.08-5.93 pmol/L, 11.17-26.24 pmol/L, 1.02-2.27 nmol/L, 62.90-168.95 nmol/L, and 0.69-13.70 μIU/mL, respectively. FT3, FT4, TT3, and TT4 were positively correlated with gestational age (P<0.05); FT3, FT4, TT3, and TT4 were positively correlated with birth weight (P<0.05); TSH was negatively correlated with birth weight (P<0.05).Conclusions Thyroid function in preterm infants at the age of 7 days is affected by the factors such as gestational age and birth weight, and the reference ranges of thyroid function in preterm infants at the age of 7 days should be established based on gestational age and birth weight.