Antibody tpo

[rai44]

My recent anti tpo shows 65u/ml with refrence range of [0-60].is this can be a cause for concern?.doctor says its normal to have some antibodies and results also vary with different unit .

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

"Normal to have some antibodies" is why the range is set to be 0-60. Being OVER 60 is a positive result. They can't say that it's OK to have some antibodies (the imperfections of the test might produce low numbers even if there are actually none), so we set the range to allow for that, and still flaming well ignore it when the result is over their upper limit.

Yes, results can vary depending on which lab does the processing. But all you have to go on are their own results and ranges! The doctor is unlikely to have any special information that counts for more than the lab has stated.

Having said all that, people have results in the hundreds. And at least some labs only bother doing their processing up to a certain number, then stop. So the actual result could numerically be much higher. So your result, whilst positive, is only low. Nonetheless it makes it very likely that you have an autoimmune cause.

[Treepie in reply to helvella]

mine was over 600 but apart from the GP saying that it looks like auto immune disease and writing to endo who replied that the figures [which?] were meaningless until TSH was well down. That was 4 months ago,hope to have more sense in February when next bloods are reviewed.

On the face of it i would not be worried unless you have the symptoms.