Provider variability in the initial diagnosis and treatment of congenital hypothyroidism.

Background: Early diagnosis and expeditious treatment of newborns with congenital hypothyroidism (CH) is necessary to avoid mental retardation.

Methods: A survey of 44 practitioners in the southern US was conducted to better understand common practices regarding neonatal CH and the findings were compared with current guidelines in the US and Europe.

Results: Responses indicated some consensus that 10-15 μg of thyroid hormone/kg/day was the appropriate dosage. However, despite guidelines advocating their use, practitioners reported that they did not commonly use imaging or laboratory tests, though experienced providers apparently used them more often.

Conclusions: Together, these results show moderate adherence to published guidelines for treating and diagnosing CH. Further research is needed to determine why providers deviate from these guidelines and to generalize these results to other populations.