PubMedDate not supplied
The "Alte Madonie" is a hill-mountain community in Sicily with a population of approximately 30,000 inhabitants. It includes the towns of Alimena, Bompietro, Blufi, Castellana Sicula, Fasano, Gangi, Geraci, Petralia Sottana, Soprana and Polizzi generosa. This is an area where goitre is endemic. Between January 1990 and September 1991 out of a population of 400 pregnant women examined at various stages of pregnancy, goitre was found in 1 out of 7.8 women (51 cases). 74.5% (38 cases) of those with goitre had undergone endocrinological tests, in all except two cases, a long time before the start of pregnancy. Three pregnant women (5.8%) were receiving suppressive therapy with L-thyroxine. 58.8% (30 cases) had undergone hormonal controls and laboratory data had revealed cases of hypothyroidism; in the remaining cases hypothyroidism had been excluded on the basis of medical examination. One patient, not included in this series who had received IVG, had been treated a few months before with strumectomy and radio-iodio-therapy for non-differentiated carcinoma which had developed on the goitre. In conclusion, these findings underline the high frequency of goitre in pregnant women from the "Alte Madonie", and the need for greater care in the prevention and treatment of this pathology. There is a clear need for integrated health education programmes and early diagnosis to be carried out in schools and work places. The role played by the gynecologist who first sees the pregnant women with goitre is vitally important, especially in the case of those patients which dedicate little time to the health of their own bodies either for cultural reasons or due to the demands of work both inside and outside the family.