Anyone know the units being used here (probably American)?

[cupcakegirl]

This article is really interesting but clearly uses different units to the U.K. for FT3 and FT4 (I’m guessing it’s American)? Can’t seem to figure out what the units are so I can convert.

drrind.com/therapies/thyroi...

Can anyone help?

[greygoose]

Convert what into what? It doesn't matter what the units are, if you have the result and you have the range, you can interpret the result. You don't have to do any converting.

[cupcakegirl in reply to greygoose]

He has quite a specific points range for different levels and I can’t seem to do the maths (not my strong point!).

Eg. They’re quoting a normal range for FT4 of 0.8-1.8 and on my results it’s 12-22. The fact that there’s a 1.0 range in theirs and a 10.0 range in mine suggests it should be an easy conversion but it’s obviously not just x10.

I just wondered if anyone knew what the units were likely to be given it clearly not the same units involved. If it’s a stupid question, I apologise!

[greygoose in reply to cupcakegirl]

Well, if he doesn't give the units, I don't see how anyone can possibly know. Have you tried calculating the percentages, what percentage through the range the results are?

[cupcakegirl in reply to greygoose]

That’s what I’ll need to do - might take me a while

I figured maybe there was a standard US unit system and a different one in the U.K., like with blood glucose, but I can’t seem to find anything stating that.

[Angel_of_the_North in reply to cupcakegirl]

There isn't. Each lab has its own ranges. If you just look at the percentages you can calculate them in your labs ranges with chorobytarczycy.eu/kalkulator

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

The units will be ng/dL (USA) or pmol/L (most of the rest of the world).

Have a look here:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thyro...

He really isn't being highly specific about numbers - just graphically showing high, middle and low values for each of the three standard tests.

[cupcakegirl in reply to helvella]

Sorry, the actual chart with the specific figures and the scale is linked but not actually on that page, it’s here

drrind.com/forms/ts_diagram...

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to cupcakegirl]

It also looks as if the scale is derived like this:

Take the FT4 range. Work out the mid-point and put that number in box marked 0. Divide the range by 10. In box +1 put mid-point plus one tenth, in -1 put mid-point minus one tenth, and so on. Each number will be the start of that box's range.

When you get to +10 put the next starter number and arbitrarily make 4.00 the top of that box.

When you get to -9, instead of minus one tenth, arbitrarily use minus 0.04.

Something similar for FT3.

For TSH the steps appear less even - being generally smaller at the left, and larger at the right.

Although that scale still isn't explained (at least, I can't find an explanation), my point is the same: He is using numbers from typical USA ranges and there is no fundamental reason that these are necessary. It is just he has not shown us how to produce a scale for our own range.

[cupcakegirl in reply to helvella]

Thanks, that makes perfect sense to me

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to cupcakegirl]

Thank goodness for that! It can be very difficult to explain things in pure text.