Hyperthyroidism in childhood: peculiarities of the different clinical pictures.

Background: clinical and biochemical picture of hyperthyroidism in children may significantly change according to its etiologies.

Objectives: to report the most recent views about epidemiology, pathophysiology, clinical and biochemical course, diagnostic procedures and management of hyperthyroid syndrome in childhood, according to its different etiologies.

Design: Graves' disease and Hashimoto's thyroiditis are responsible for 84% and 12%, respectively, of all the cases of hyperthyroidism in childhood.

In children with Hashimoto's thyroiditis the evolution over time of thyroid status may differ according to the different presentation patterns.

Aim: to report the salient literature news concerning the relationships between thyroid function presenting patterns and subsequent biochemical evolution of Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) in pediatric age.

Design: the most recent reports from pediatric literature concerning biochemical thyroid function patterns at HT presentation and their spontaneous changes over time were analyzed and shortly commented.

Results: from the analysis of pediatric literature on this theme, it emerges that HT in children may present with a very heterogeneous biochemical picture ranging from overt hypothyroidism to overt hyperthyroidism.