What are TSH, Free T4, Free T3 ranges for children?

[Polo22]

Have a Paediatrician appointment in morning for 13 year old DS, had a letter saying the usual " all fine" but I am going to ask for actually numbers ? Know it's leaving it till last minute but hope someone can answer before I go at 11 am , TIA

[Polo22]

and anti bodie numbers

[jade_s]

Hi Polo, i don't know if this will help you but this may give you a general idea of how the ranges shift by age. This page is from Labcorp in the US & has ranges for all age levels for FT4. Scroll towards the bottom.

You can search for TSH & FT3 to get the same info. You may need to convert these to uk units / mol.

labcorp.com/tests/001974/th...

And of course keep in mind that different labs may use different ranges!

If you know which lab did yours, you may be able to find age appropriate ranges online.

Good luck!

[Lalatoot]

The GP surgery will have the ranges beside the results. That's what they use to interpret the results. So you need to ask for the ranges at the same time as you ask for the results.

[Polo22 in reply to Lalatoot]

slight problem with that, bloods done at Alder Hey Children's, GP surgery obviously gets copy but I am not allowed access , Why you might ask, because daughter has to give consent, daughter has no idea what consent is, or has the capacity to give consent if she did know

[J972 in reply to Polo22]

Good morning. Hopefully this will help.

Ranges are taken from my daughters’ recent results (aged 14 & 17, UK NHS testing). Best of luck today.

Serum TSH level [0.47 - 3.41]

Serum free T4 level [9.3 - 17.6]

Serum thyroid peroxidase antibody concentration [0.0 - 34.0]

[Andie222 in reply to Polo22]

Can you take her with you to the GP surgery? The receptionist can ask her if she is happy to give you the results. I went through the same frustration with my son!

[Polo22 in reply to Andie222]

I have been trying for 2 years now to get her added as a dependant on MY GP app, they won't without her consenting. In frustration I took her into surgery one afternoon stood her in front of reception and said very loudly " Go on Orla, tell the ladies you give consent and you have the capacity to do so" she is 13, has Down syndrome , can speak now days but has no understanding of abstract concepts like free will, consent etc, we are still working on helping her understand Happy, Sad, Angry. She smiled gave them the thumbs up and said "Dink" a stock phrase which covers everything from Ok , to happy

[J972 in reply to Polo22]

Frustrating.

Have you tried the practice manager?

[helvella Administrator]

You need to go to the actual lab that did the tests. No other lab ranges are of any use other than to give a general flavour.

Luckily, they are available online from the Alder Hey Pathology Handbook. Image included - and this is a link to the PDF:

alderhey.nhs.uk/wp-content/...

Screenshot of thyroid reference intervals for Alder Hey

[Polo22 in reply to helvella]

Thank You so much, figured it out eventually. Just wanted to know because had results letter just saying the infamous "normal" and I am going to ask her paed to tell me the actual numbers, I'll take it rom there then and if needs getting BH test

[humanbean in reply to helvella]

helvella

Do you know why the top of the reference ranges for Free T3 aged 12+ are lower for girls than boys?

I'm also rather surprised that, in boys aged 15+, the bottom of the reference range is lower for boys than girls.

Off-topic - but I've always been miffed that the reference ranges for iron and ferritin are so much lower for females than males. I read a comment from a doctor once (online) about doctors "allowing" women to be "just a little bit anaemic" compared to men. Isn't that kind of them?

[helvella Administrator in reply to humanbean]

An easy question!

No - I don't know.

With all these things, I think we need to check our sodium and chloride levels and take a good pinch of salt.

Re ferritin, could it be they ignore excess iron in men? Probably both ways. (My ferritin was something like 450 last time it was tested.)

[Polo22 in reply to helvella]

Well , Paed wasn't the worst or best, tried to discuss it with him, asked for numbers he said he'll send them in a letter. Wasn't convinced by my arguments, so we'll see