Neonatal Graves' Disease

Abstract

Assays for the long-acting thyroid stimulator were carried out on serum from 5 children with neonatal Graves' disease and on serum from their mothers. They were carried out also in 2 instances of apparently euthyroid children born of mothers who suffered from Graves' disease. Positive assays were found with the serum from all the mothers and 6 of the children. In one child a half-life of the stimulator was estimated to be of the order of 1 or 2 weeks. It was postulated that neonatal Graves' disease results primarily from the long-acting thyroid stimulator in the maternal circulation reaching the fetal blood stream, and that the clinical consequences are determined largely by the concentration of the stimulator in the mother's blood.