Association of maternal thyroid dysfunction and autoimmunity with adverse birth outcomes

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the relationship between thyroid function and autoimmunity and adverse birth outcomes. Serum levels of thyroid function were detected by electrochemiluminescence assay. Urine iodine concentration was detected using the acid digestion method. We used multiple linear regression to assess the correlation between thyroid function indicators and birth weight according to trimester stratification and binary logistic regression to evaluate the correlation between thyroid dysfunction and adverse birth outcomes. Reference ranges for trimester-specific thyroid hormones were established in our 2564 pregnant women cohort with mild iodine deficiency. The higher the maternal thyroid-stimulating hormone in the first trimester (B = 0.09, P  = 0.048) and total triiodothyronine (TT3) in the third trimester (B = 0.16, P  < 0.001) of TPOAbnegative women, the higher the birth weight Z-score, whereas in the second trimester, free-thyroxine of mothers with TPOAb negative was lower (B = −0.10, P  = 0.026) and the birth weight Z-score was higher. Pregnant women with overt and subclinical hyperthyroidism had a higher risk of preterm births than euthyroid women (11.9% vs 4.5%; odds ratio (OR): 2.84; P  = 0.009). Women with higher TT3 had a higher risk of preterm (17.0% vs 4.5%; OR: 4.19; P  < 0.001) and LGA (34.0% vs 11.1%; OR: 3.70; P  < 0.001) births than euthyroid women. In conclusion, thyroid function during pregnancy could affect birth weight and birth outcome.