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Circulating Thyrotrophin as an Index of Thyroid Function

1985; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 22; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1177/000456328502200502

1758-1001

J. Stuart Woodhead, Ian Weeks,

Thyroid Disorders and Treatments

Thyroid function testing has provided the major endocrine workload in laboratories for many years. This workload has been considerably augmented by the introduction in some laboratories over the last 5 years of regional screening programmes for the early detection of congenital hypothyroidism. The pressure on laboratories to provide efficient thyroid function testing has been partly responsible for the enormous technological developments that have been introduced recently through the efforts of research laboratories and commercial manufacturers. Sadly, however, there have been occasions where diagnostic accuracy has been sacrificed in favour of technical convenience, for example, in the use of certain free hormone assays.' In this article we shall review recent advances in the measurement of thyrotrophin (TSH) and try to assess the potential of the new generation of TSH assays in improving the diagnostic accuracy of thyroid function testing.