Impact of covid-19 on the thyroid function of children and adolescents: an integrative review

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate changes in thyroid function associated with COVID-19 in pediatric patients, their etiology, clinical and laboratory profile, as well as evolution. METHODS: A search was carried out in PubMed, Scielo, Lilacs and Google Scholar databases, between january 2020 and july 2022, through the combination of the descriptors: COVID-19, thyroid function, and pediatric population, in accordance with MeSH and DeSC, and in Portuguese, English and Spanish. RESULTS: After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 8 of the 842 articles found were considered eligible for review, totalling a sample of 288 patients, aged 1 month to 18 years, affected by different forms of thyroid function disfunctions related to COVID-19, including subacute thyroiditis, TSH elevation in patients with pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome, euthyroid sick syndrome, and autoimmune hyper or hypothyroidism diagnosed after COVID-19 or exacerbated by the infection. The articles suggest that periodic assessment of thyroid function in children and adolescents affected by COVID-19 may allow screening of asymptomatic patients and early elucidate clinical conditions associated to thyroid pathology in the post-SARSCoV-2 infection period. CONCLUSIONS: The analysed articles, despite their small number, are relevant because they describe illustrative cases of thyroid dysfunction related to COVID-19 infection in the pediatric population. This work also points to the need for further studies in children and adolescents to define more precisely the evolution of these thyroid disfunctions, the best way to investigate them, and their most appropriate management, considering that thyroid function is essential for a full pediatric development.