Endemic cretinism iodine deficiency disorders

DeLong, G.R., Stanbury, J.B. and Fierro-Benitez, R. (1985). Neurological signs in congenital iodine-deficiency disorder (endemic cretinism), Dev.Med Child Neurol 27, no. 3, pp. 317-324. 

The subject of endemic cretinism has been bedevilled over the years by the fact that iodine deficiency disorders appear to express themselves very differently from country to country. We hope that those observations on the cretins of Qinghai Province add one more piece to the immense jigsaw puzzle of endemic cretinism. 

The term endemic cretinism applies to individuals bom and living in areas of severe iodine deficiency and endemic goiter exhibiting irreversible anomalies of intellectual and physical development not explained by other causes than the environmental factors responsible for goiter. The prevalence of the disorder can reach 10 % of the whole population in severely affected areas and cretinism constitutes the most serious complication of endemic goiter. 

F. Delange, Disorders of iodine deficiency. Endemic cretinism, ... 

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