To Sandy: thyroid antibodies

[Guest guest]

Here is what I found in the Merck Manual of diagnosis and

treatment about thyroid peroxidase antibodies: (I am still trying to

find the thyroglobulin antibodies info)

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Measurement of thyroid autoantibodies:

Autoantibodies to thyroid peroxidase and, less commonly, to

thyroglobulin are present in almost all patients with Hashimoto's

thyroiditis, and thyroid peroxidase autoantibodies are usually

detected in patients with Graves' disease. Both these antibodies

are commonly measured by enzyme immunoassays; a thyroid

peroxidase autoantibody test has replaced the older tanned red

cell agglutination test for thyroid antimicrosomal (M)

autoantibodies. Hyperthyroidism in Graves' disease is caused

by an autoantibody directed against the TSH receptor on the

thyroid follicular cell (TRAb). Two general methods are used to

measure TRAbs. TSH binding-inhibition assays determine the

ability of serum IgG to inhibit the binding of 125I-TSH to

solubilized TSH receptors. Thyroid-stimulating antibody assay

measures the ability of these IgGs to stimulate cAMP generation

or 125I uptake in different biologic systems, ie, monolayer

cultures of isolated thyroid cells, cultured rat thyroid follicular

cells (FRTL-5), or thyroid cells from human or porcine tissue.

Finally, antibodies against T4 and T3 may be found in patients

with autoimmune thyroid disease and may affect T4 and T3

measurements but are almost never clinically significant.