الفهرس 
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Abstract
The present study is a cross sectional study aimed to assess thyroid function in sick and healthy preterm infants admitted to NICU of Assuit University Children Hospital in the period from the start of December 2021 up to the end of December 2022.
The study included 100 preterm neonates <37 weeks’ gestation (50 healthy preterm infants coming to routine postnatal checkup and neonatal outpatient clinic and 50 sick preterm infants admitted to NICU with various problems as: respiratory distress, hypoxia, sepsis, necrotizing enterocolitis, neonatal jaundice, ect).
Thyroid function was evaluated by serum level of TSH, free T3, and free T4 at age of 3 days and 14 days.
Results showed that, according to presenting illness in sick preterm group, Respiratory distress syndrome was the most frequent illness found in more than half of patients followed by Neonatal sepsis /shock in 7 (14%) patients then jaundice in 5 (10%) patients.
There was a statistically significant increase in thyroid dysfunction in sick preterm infants compared to healthy preterms (P=0.02), with hyperthyrotropinemia being the most common abnormality, followed by congenital hypothyroidism and hypothyroxinemia of prematurity.
There was statistical significant decrease of TSH, free T3, and free T4 level in sick preterm group compared to healthy preterm group at day 3 (p=0.005, p<0.001, p<0.001 respectively) and at day 14 (p=0.038, p<0.001, p<0.001 respectively) and also a statistically significant decrease in TSH level at day 14 compared to its level at day 3 in both sick and healthy preterm groups (p<0.001). T4 level had a trend to be decreased at day 14 than its level at day 3 but this decrease did not reach the significant level in both sick preterm group and healthy preterm group (p>0.05).
In both sick and healthy preterm groups, there was a negative correlation between TSH level and birth weight and gestational age, and a positive correlation between freeT3 and free T4 level and birth weight and gestational age.