TSH test

[Guest guest]

Hi all, PUBMED= evaluation of usefulness of a sensitive immunoradiometric assay for thyroid stimulating hormone as a first-line thryoid function test in an unselected patient population. ericsson ub, femlund p, thorell jl.scand j clin invest 1987 may;47(3):215-21.A new sensitive immunoraddiometric assay for serum thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH)was applied to 1627 consecutive patients from four large clinics at malmo general hospital, in whom a thyroid function disorder was suspected. the final diagnoses were taken from the patients` charts at a follow-up 1-2 years after the primary evaluation. if only those patients without thyroid disease were used as a reference population, the 5th percentile was 0.8mlu/l.when this cutoff limit was applied to

the unselected patient population, the TSH assay had a high sensitivity for the diagnosis of hyperthyroidism((96%)a lower specificity (64%) and a low predictive value (10%). therefore, in the majotity of patients (72%) the sensitive TSH assay CANNOT BE USED ALONE TO DEFINE THYROID FUNCTION.this is for hyperthyroidism so could also apply for hypothyroidism.???so much for the sensitivity of blood tests. regards angel.

[Guest guest]

hi sheila/all, here is the link to pubmed-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3589485ANGEL.

[Guest guest]

Thanks so much Angel. Definitely worth keeping and sending to

doctors who insist that TSH is the ONLY test required.

Luv - Sheila

hi sheila/all, here is the link to pubmed-

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3589485

ANGEL.