I am planning to test my TSH in the next days at a new Laboratory and no longer at the current laboratory ( they use ECLIA), the reason is because my TSH in recent blood tests was high despite normal FT3 and FT4 levels .
Last blood test :
tSh 7.5
Ft3 5.47 (3.7 - 6.8)
FT4 21.3 (11.2 - 20.1 )
I have to decide which laboratory i chose, I have at disposal two laboratories, one of them use (CLIA) and the other one uses (CMIA)
Does anyone know which is the most accurate assay to avoid any interference ?
Thx
Written by
Blueskyyy
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Strictly trial and error I'm afraid. One can't know exactly in advance whether a given test is interfered with, because several sorts of antibodies can exist in humans (anti-sheep, rabbit, mouse, rat etc etc). So if a test gives a stupid result, another should be better but can't be guaranteed.
Well, I'm not so sure it is. I'm pretty certain that the only reason they say you need to have your TSH below 2 is that a TSH higher than that indicates low thyroid hormones.
TSH isn't a thyroid hormone, it's a pituitary hormone. It stimulates the thyroid to make more hormone when thyroid hormone levels are low in the blood. Obviously, if you're hypo, your thyroid can't respond, so you need to take thyroid hormone replacement.
The only other job TSH has is to stimulate conversion of T4 to T3. As you're taking exogenous T3, you don't need it for that, either. So, in theory, your TSH should be low. Yes. But, I don't think the TSH itself has any direct effect on conception or pregnancy. It's the T4 that crosses the blood/placenta barrier during pregnancy, so you do need a decent level of that. But, you do have a decent level of that. So, conception and pregnancy should, in theory, be possible.
As to why you have such a high TSH, I don't know. Could be due to antibodies, as diogenes suggests. Could be a technical error. Could be a pituitary malfunction. Has your TSH always been high in comparison to your Frees?
I assume the ranges are always the same? But, in any case, your TSH has never been low, has it? And it seems to jump around independent of the Free levels. So, I would be more inclined to think there's a pituitary problem, rather than an assay problem.
Yes, of course it can. You're not limited to one or the other. Problems like company!
Yes, you do have Hashi's with those high antibodies. But, that wouldn't account for a TSH that is always too high. TSH is a pituitary hormone, so it's more than likely that that is where the fault lies. Have you had any other pituitary hormones tested, like ATCH or HGH?
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