Test Ranges Differing from Lab to Lab

[Guest guest]

I am not sure how to interpret results when the lab ranges vary so greatly.

late July 2010 - 75 t3

Quest lab

ft3 357 (230 - 420) -- took 1/2 HC dose before draw

August 24 2010 - 87.5 t4

TriCore lab

ft3 5.8 (1.6 - 5.6)

The units of measurement are the same for both labs. So are my results absolute

and each lab just decides on it's own range or do the labs somehow measure

differently at these different labs?

I want to retest to see if this is pooling t3 or not, but I wonder if I should

go back to Quest so I am comparing apples to apples. I mean, I can't imagine an

extra 12.5 t3 could bump me from top 1/4 of range to slightly over range without

pooling, or could it??

Anyway, I would really like to get a new thyroid panel tomorrow morning, so if

anyone can shed some light on this, I would appreciate it. I like TricCore MUCH

better than Quest, but I also need to do what's best to help me figure what's

going on.

Thank you,

Kathleen