Recent Case Study on measurement of TSH

[Squeezie]

I just read this:

thyroidresearchjournal.biom...

It seems to be saying that just measuring TSH, without T4 or T3, can give inaccurate results. Any thoughts from the more scholarly members on the forum?

[diogenes Remembering]

It's not uncommon for a human to have antibodies against mouse, sheep, goat and othr animals. These antibodies can interfere with the antibodies used in a particular test and suppress results, by not allowing TSH to react. In fact there are more potential interfering antibodies for TSH tests than there are for FT4 or FT3 (though there are some rare ones). Patients with T4- or T3-bearing antibodies can affect these tests but it's easy to circumvent them by the right assay design.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Just testing TSH is completely inadequate

For full Thyroid evaluation you need TSH, FT4 and FT3 plus both TPO and TG thyroid antibodies tested. Also EXTREMELY important to test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12

Low vitamin levels are extremely common, especially if you have autoimmune thyroid disease (Hashimoto's) diagnosed by raised Thyroid antibodies

low vitamin levels due to being under treated frequently result in low TSH

Recommended on here that all thyroid blood tests should ideally be done as early as possible in morning and before eating or drinking anything other than water .

Last dose of Levothyroxine 24 hours prior to blood test. (taking delayed dose immediately after blood draw).

This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip, best not mentioned to GP or phlebotomist)

Private tests are available. Thousands on here forced to do this as NHS often refuses to test FT3 or antibodies

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/testin...

For thyroid including antibodies and vitamins

Medichecks Thyroid plus ultra vitamin or Blue Horizon Thyroid plus eleven are the most popular choice. DIY finger prick test or option to pay extra for private blood draw. Both companies often have special offers, Medichecks usually have offers on Thursdays, Blue Horizon its more random