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Thyroid function tests (TFTs) is a collective term for blood tests used to check the function of the thyroid. [1] TFTs may be requested if a patient is thought to suffer from hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid) or hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid), or to monitor the effectiveness of either thyroid-suppression or hormone replacement therapy.
Reference ranges (reference intervals) for blood tests are sets of values used by a health professional to interpret a set of medical test results from blood samples. Reference ranges for blood tests are studied within the field of clinical chemistry (also known as "clinical biochemistry", "chemical pathology" or "pure blood chemistry"), the ...
At the cellular level, T 3 is the body's more active and potent thyroid hormone. [2] T 3 helps deliver oxygen and energy to all of the body's cells, its effects on target tissues being roughly four times more potent than those of T 4. [2] Of the thyroid hormone that is produced, just about 20% is T 3, whereas 80% is produced as T 4.
The most useful marker of thyroid gland function is serum thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels. 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 ...
The standard definition of a reference range for a particular measurement is defined as the interval between which 95% of values of a reference population fall into, in such a way that 2.5% of the time a value will be less than the lower limit of this interval, and 2.5% of the time it will be larger than the upper limit of this interval, whatever the distribution of these values.
Also in normal pregnancies, adequate levels of maternal thyroid hormone are vital in order to ensure thyroid hormone availability for the foetus and its developing brain. [89] Congenital hypothyroidism occurs in every 1 in 1600–3400 newborns with most being born asymptomatic and developing related symptoms weeks after birth.
The therapeutic target range TSH level for patients on treatment ranges between 0.3 and 3.0 μIU/mL. [18] For hypothyroid patients on thyroxine, measurement of TSH alone is generally considered sufficient. An increase in TSH above the normal range indicates under-replacement or poor compliance with therapy.
Thyroid hormone binding ratio (THBR) is a thyroid function test that measures the "uptake" of T3 or T4 tracer by thyroid-binding globulin (TBG) in a given serum sample. This provides an indirect and reciprocal estimate of the available binding sites on TBG within the sample. The results are then reported as a ratio to normal serum.