Resistance to thyroid hormones. Study of an affected kindred diagnosed at neonatal age

Resistance to thyroid hormones (RTH) is a rare condition of reduced activity of thyroid hormones on peripheral tissues and/or reduced suppression of TSH secretion by thyroid hormones. The disease is characterised by high serum levels of T3, T4, fT3 and fT4, and by unexpectedly normal or high TSH levels. The origin of the resistance has been recognised in a thyroid hormone receptor deficit, whose gene (TRβ) has been mapped on chromosome 3p24.3 and several mutations have been identified. The clinical presentation may vary among a large spectrum from hypo-, to eu-, to hyperthyroidism in different patients, even in the same family. The diagnosis of RTH at birth and in the first months of life i…