Patients with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis (HT) or Graves' Disease (GD) were individually compared to a control group of patients with early stage malignancy or goiter.
It was inferred that therapy should be recommended for children with underlying Hashimoto's thyroiditis and progressive deterioration of thyroid status over time, particularly in the cases with goiter and hypothyroid symptoms and in those with associated Turner syndrome or Down's syndrome and/or other autoimmune diseases.
The patients with benign thyroid diseases consisted of 10 with adenomatous goiter (50%), 7 with goiter (35%) and three with Hashimoto thyroiditis (15%).