NEONATAL HYPERTHYROIDISM

Abstract

Summary Neonatal Graves disease, with frank cardiac failure and pronounced bilateral breast enlargement, is described in a premature infant female. Thyrotoxicosis, culminating rapidly in thyroid storm, was successfully treated by administration of Lugol's solution, digitalis and phenobarbital. The case is discussed in reference to the legitimacy of long‐acting thyroid stimulator (LATS) as the originator of neontal thyrotoxicosis. Although LATS could not be detected, the occurrence of gastric parietal cell antibodies in both mother and child yielded presumptive evidence for thyrotoxicosis as an autoimmune disease.