Hi! Sorry it’s me again… so I’m just wondering why there is an upper limit set on the ranges for antibodies? So for example the range for thyroglobulin antibodies is 0-116 but even if there is a detectable level of antibodies say as low as 3 why isn’t that classed as positive? Surely any antibodies at all no matter how small the level indicate that your thyroid is being attacked?
Thank you just trying to understand it all!
As far as i understand it (so far) .........
Thyroid peroxidase antibodies and Thyroglobulin antibodies are a normal part of how the immune system functions. .. the body is continually doing maintainence /renewing cells etc
so no one has TPOab of 0..00 , or TGab of 0.00 , that would be highly unusual so the ranges for antibodies are always 0 - x , or < x
but when a person has more than x amount of those antibodies, then it is a clue that more than a usual amount of damage has been done which needed more than a usual amount of antibodies to help in the process of clearing it up .
This paper had lots of detail about antibodies .. might give you a headache though :
healthunlocked.com/thyroidu... different-varieties-of-hashimotos-every-thing-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-antibodies-lots-youll-never-get-your-head-round
Hi! So the part of the paper that says…
“Although high anti-thyroid antibody titers may provide an indication of the likelihood of overt hypothyroidism, no correlation of antibody titer and risk for hypothyroidism has been found so far (96)."
What does this part actually mean? X
i would have to read it in context ..and i'm not going to , cos it's late and it would give me a headache lol
but at first glance , it sounds like it means :
we know over range TPOab means an increased chance that person will become overtly hypothyroid at some point , but so far, we haven't got any proof that a person with TPOab of eg 500 [0-50] is any more likely to end up overtly hypothyroid than the person with TPOab of 100 [0-50] .
I have read that several times - over years. And am still not sure.
The problem is with the word "risk" used like that.
Having elevated (positive) antibodies is seen as a predictor of eventual progression to hypothyroidism. But a positive antibody test from an individual does not correlate well enough with that individual actually being hypothyroid at the time of the test.
Could be entirely wrong. Of course!
Amy somebody with more science will come along and give detail. In plain speak normal folks can have thyroglobulin antibodies and no thyroid problem. So a detectable level does not indicate thyroid disease. If you type in thyroglobulin antibodies into Google you will find plenty to read if you are interested.
There is also the fact that no test is perfect.
Even if you genuinely had zero antibodies, the test might show a low number.
But also, very occasionally, a different antibody might trigger the detector at the heart of the test. We are dealing with huge complex biological/biochemical systems. Imperfection is normal!
Hi Amyflood246❤️
I'll tell you a little story about thyroid antibodies a doctor told me when I was in hospital in thyroid storm.
I'd been having bad symptoms for around a year and was constantly at my surgery because I knew in my heart something was very wrong with me, but my gp just kept saying I was menupausal.
In 2018 he'd finally had enough of me when I told him I was sure my problem was my thyroid, he went on to say there was no indication I had a thyroid problem as he'd done all the blood tests.
I last saw him in August 2018 when he'd asked me to stop bothering him as he had other patients far worse than me.
I collapsed at home in the sep 2018 and my son go me to the surgery, I saw a new gp who immediately told me I have an overactive thyroid, later confirmed by blood tests.
But I was rushed into hospital in thyroid storm where I had the antibody thyroid test, and uptake scan which confirmed graves disease, the doc said my antibodies were really very high.
So I went into a rant of why did my gp not recognised my illness, the ward doc was sympathetic towards me but also told me thyroid antibodies can be sometimes hard to detect.. "How so I asked." . He told me that if your in a flare up in the early stages of a thyroid disease the antibodies are in an attack mode at that particular point, if a blood test is performed then the antibodies can be seen with in the blood test, but early on in any thyroid conditions it can be hard to detect.
But as the thyroid is being attacked more as in your case now "you are in thyroid storm the antibodies remain high, and some bloods can catch antibodies in their flare up, but it can a be hit and miss process also some gps just don't do the antibodie test in thyroid disease 🤦♀️
I saw an endocrinologist who also confirmed what the ward doc told me🤔, now I don't know if I was being gaslighted or not by these professionals 🤔 I lost my thyroid in the end because it was so toxic, but another thing I mentioned to this hospital doc was "why do gps think it's OK to do one thyroid blood test on a patient? if it comes back in normal range? That doesn't necessarily mean they don't have a thyroid problem, especially if they are having symptoms of either hyper or hypo, I found out through my medical records my gp only did one thyroid test in that year and only did TSH which was quite low but within range, but he didn't perform any other thyroid blood tests eventho I was clearly showing hyper symptoms 😠
I'm afraid our journey with any thyroid condition starts at our surgery's and if our doctors don't understand thyroid conditions then we are stumped, however if they have a patient who's thyroid blood work shows out of range on one test they should do another test in a few weeks to see if those bloods remain out of range.. Then you can maby get a diagnosis and as I said that goes for antibodies also👍
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