What does it mean when people say are the results for the thyroid ' In Range?'
In range of what> ps I am new to this. plz excuse my ignorance.
What does it mean when people say are the results for the thyroid ' In Range?'
In range of what> ps I am new to this. plz excuse my ignorance.
Error 'What does it mean?'
Each test has a reference range which is usually based on healthy population (often locally).
For example, my lab's range for FT4 is 7-17.
Any result between 7 and 17 is within range.
Any result below 7 or over 17 is out of range.
Sorry Susie but what has the rest of the population got to do with your results? Am I reading this wrong?
The rest of the population has nothing to do with your results except that the lab has to have a range for each test.
The range needs to be based on results from normal healthy people so the range is made up by testing a number of healthy people and the range is then based on those results.
Range is the numbers in brackets after your results.
This is where your result is expected to be. So for ft4 the range is 12 - 22. Your result should be somewhere between 12 and 22.
The exact figures for the ranges varies between testing labs which is why we usually quote them.
Lalatoot
So as not to confuse things any further for the OP, you might want to edit your post where you have put "Your result should be somewhere between 12 and 24." and change it to 12-22 so it agrees with your other statement about the range
Imdelightful, to add to the explanations you've already had, the range shows the numbers we'd expect a healthy person to have. Theoretically someone who is healthy could have a number anywhere inside that range, but once we see a result outside that range of numbers we suspect the person isn't healthy.
This is the theory, but in practice with thyroid the ranges are very wide, and you can easily be very sick but have numbers inside the range. It is just a partial tool for figuring out where we are that has a lot of problems, but it's what we've got.
I am a very simple soul . How I think about range :
4ft 11in - 6ft 7in in range for someone’s height.
However if you are a man at 4ft 11in or a young woman at 6ft7in ......
get where I’m going?
It’s got to be ‘right ‘ for the individual
It doesn’t seem to be understood by doctors
Oh while, hope I haven’t confused you 🙂