[Ultrasonography of the thyroid gland and the pancreas in healthy children and in patients with endocrinological disease].

The thyroid gland and pancreas were ultrasonographically examined in order to determine their normal sizes in children. In 418 healthy children the thickness and width of the right and left lobes of the thyroid gland were measured at the transverse section of the neck. In 145 healthy children the long axis and short axis diameters of the profile of the head and body of the pancreas were measured by the sagittal scanning at the epigastrium. The mean +/- standard deviations as a function of height was determined as the normal size in children. In 23 patients with congenital hypothyroidism and hyperthyropinanemia ultrasonographic findings of the thyroid gland were classified into 4 groups: large thyroid gland image, normal thyroid gland image, small thyroid gland image, and no image of the thyroid gland. The patients in the no image of the thyroid gland group revealed extremely high serum thyrotropin level at the initial diagnosis, and they needed a total replacement dose of l-T4. Thyroid scintigraphy was carried out in 7 of the 23 patients. The ultrasonographic findings coincided with the scintigrams in all 7 patients. We concluded that no image of the thyroid gland by ultrasonography was in accord with thyroid aplasia or ectopic thyroid gland, and large thyroid gland image by ultrasonography was goitorous congenital hypothyroidism. In 18 patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) the size of the pancreas was smaller than in the healthy controls. However there was no correlation between the size of the pancreas and clinical parameters, such as duration of IDDM, mean HbA1 and the insulin dose. In 31 patients with growth hormone deficiency undergoing growth hormone therapy, pancreas size was not different from the healthy controls. Thus it was suggested that in IDDM patients the size of the pancreas was small at the time of onset, and that the growth hormone had morphologically no influence on the pancreas in patients with growth hormone deficiency.