Guest guest Posted October 14, 2004 Report Share Posted October 14, 2004 Hi Sandy, From what I am understanding reading a textbook about interpreting lab values....is that the insulin test, by itself is not a very good test for diagnosing diabetic type problems. I think that it is like testing for blood sugars...that it must be run under rigid criteria. The insulin test should have been run with the patient fasting (usually 12 hours or so) then they challenge the patient with sugar and take blood specimens at specified intervals and monitor the values. If you had eaten within the 12 hour period before your blood was drawn, the value of 40 doesn't really mean anything I think. In addition, it seems as if it has to be run along with a few other tests (blood sugars and another protein) and they look at the ratio between these values to get an idea of the significance. So it is another example of this being meaningless without it being interpreted in the right context. I also read a little more about the thyroid autoantibodies and it seems as if about 60% of patients with thyroiditis have these antibodies. But again, interpreted alone without other lab values (like TSH, T3 , T4 as well as some blood chemistries)it is not of too much significance. It seems that your best course here, would be to try to get in to see an endocrinologist if you think that you are not getting any better. So, I could be wrong....don't take what I am saying as the last word......because I just tried to educate myself on this information and I could have grossly misunderstood, but I think, that this is what the authors are saying concerning these tests that you are asking about. Laurie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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