[Postnatally acquired hypothyroidism in an infant a variant of congenital hypothyroidism (author's transl)].

We are reporting a case of hypothyroidism in an infant which developed at the end of the second quarter of the first year of life on the basis of a dysgenetic thyroid gland. By the time of its diagnosis in the ninth month of life it had led to bone age retardation and dysgenesis of the second lumbar vertebra. Clinical picture, longitudinal growth and psychomotor development were minimally or not affected. Pathogenetically this case of relatively mild postnatally acquired hypothyroidism has to be classified under the spectrum of congenital hypothyroidism. Clinically it is important that it would not have been picked up by a neonatal screening program and still might have led to impairment of the cerebral development.