• Gamal Abd El Naser Yamamah, Ashraf Fawzy Kamel, Soha Abd-El Dayem, Amal Saad Hussein, and Hassan Salama.
• Paediatric Department, National Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt.
• Arch Med Sci. 2013 Jun 20; 9 (3): 548554548-54.

IntroductionThe determination of goitre prevalence in children by ultrasonography is an important tool for considering iodine deficiency disorders. Our objective was to describe measurements of thyroid volumes by ultrasonography in Egyptian South Sinai schoolchildren and compare these with the WHO/International Council for the Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders normative thyroid volume criteria (WHO/ICCIDD).Material And MethodsCross-sectional thyroid ultrasonographic data of 719 schoolchildren (339 boys and 380 girls), aged 6-12 years from five cities in South Sinai (El Tur (T), Abu Redis (R), Ras Sudr (S), Saint Katherine (SK), and Nwebaa (N)). Age/sex and body surface area/sex specific upper limits (97(th) percentile) of normal thyroid volume were derived and urinary iodine (UI) was measured.ResultsThe median value of urinary iodine was 150 µg/l. Comparing WHO/ICCIDD thyroid volume references to Egyptian South Sinai schoolchildren resulted in goitre prevalence of 10.6% using age/sex specific and 13.48% using body surface area/sex specific cut-off values. The prevalence of goitre was 20.0% in S, 16.3% in R, 10.8% in N, 9.9% in T, and 10.5% in SC. Upper limits of normal (97(th) percentile) thyroid volume from South Sinai schoolchildren calculated using BSA, sex, and age were higher than the corresponding WHO/ICCIDD.ConclusionsPrevalence of goitre is high in South Sinai schoolchildren. The body surface area reference should be preferred to the reference based on age. South Sinai schoolchildren had larger thyroids than WHO/ICCIDD thyroid volumes, perhaps due to hard polluted water with a high fluorine level.

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