Blue Horizon FT4/FT3 tests

[diogenes]

I've contacted Blue Horizon to find out the exact basis of these tests. They've kindly sent me details. The basis of the tests is I think the soundest and as an inventor of the methods now used I can assure TUK that the results should be reliable.

[Numberone1]

Has there been some doubt related to these tests because I had some very weird results recently.

[jimh111]

Thanks for this. Does it refer to the finger prick blood samples or blood taken by venipuncture? It would be interesting to compare both methods with blood taken from the same patient at around the same time.

[diogenes Remembering in reply to jimh111]

As far as I know the same techniques are used. Odd results usually come from poor handling of samples or degradation during sending to the lab. FT4/3 tests are very sensitive to that.

[jimh111 in reply to diogenes]

Thanks. That makes sense. I suspect some of the wierd fT3 figures we see from finger prick tests are due to the nature of drawing the blood from a finger and the small quantity of blood used to measure a substance that is present in very small quantities.

It's a problem if the patient can't get their GP to do an fT3 test. I would recommend using the bloodtestslondon.com/ walk in service if you live near London. They are essentially the same company as Blue Horizon and are used by many Harley Street hospitals and the whole of North West London NHS.