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Hyperthyroxinemia is a thyroid disease where the serum levels of thyroxine are higher than expected. [1] Thyroxine or tetraiodothyronine (T4) is produced by the thyroid gland. The term is sometimes used to refer to hyperthyroidism, but hyperthyroidism is a more general term. [2]
High blood levels of thyroid hormones (most accurately termed hyperthyroxinemia) can occur for a number of other reasons: Inflammation of the thyroid is called thyroiditis. There are several different kinds of thyroiditis including Hashimoto's thyroiditis (Hypothyroidism immune-mediated), and subacute thyroiditis (de Quervain's).
If, for example, the TBG level is high, which can occur when estrogen levels are high, the TBG will bind more thyroid hormone, decreasing the free hormone available in the blood, which leads to stimulation of TSH, and the production of more thyroid hormone. In this case, the total thyroid hormone level will be high.
Normal thyroid levels are also seen, and occasionally also hypothyroidism, which may assist in causing goiter (though it is not the cause of the Graves' disease). Hyperthyroidism in Graves' disease is confirmed, as with any other cause of hyperthyroidism, by measuring elevated blood levels of free (unbound) T3 and T4.
Hypothyroidism is diagnosed by looking at the free thyroxine (T4) levels in people with elevated TSH levels, and comparing the ratio between them. People with high TSH and low T4 get a diagnosis ...
TSH levels are determined by a classic negative feedback system in which high levels of T3 and T4 suppress the production of TSH, and low levels of T3 and T4 increase the production of TSH. TSH levels are thus often used by doctors as a screening test, where the first approach is to determine whether TSH is elevated, suppressed, or normal. [25]
To understand how high levels of thyroxine can be toxic and lead to thyrotoxic myopathy physiologically, consider basic neuromuscular junction function. Under normal circumstances, muscle contraction occurs when electrical impulses travel down descending axons from the brain or spinal cord towards the neuromuscular junction.
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