Endocrine Abstracts

In the healthy elderly there seems to be an age dependent decrease of TSH and FT3 but not FT4. The prevalence of TPOAb positivity increases with age but surprisingly it has been found to be decreased in centenarians. Antibody positivity is not predictive for future thyroid dysfunction in old age. The upper range of normal TSH for the healthy elderly living in sufficient iodine intake areas is higher than in case of iodine deficiency. In iodine deficient areas there is a high p...

Because measurement of plasma signal activity (PRA) is time-consuming an automated method directly measuring active signal (REN) may be more suitable for clinical practice. The aim of the study was to analyse the diagnostic utility of REN and aldosterone (ALD)/REN ratio as compared to PRA and ALD/PRA ratio.Materials and methods: PRA, REN (DiaSorin) and ALD (Immunotech) were simultaneously measured in 123 plasma samples (83 females and 40 males; mean age,...

Background: The detectable levels of thyroid antibodies in patients suffering from Riedel’s chronic fibrosing thyroiditis (RT) suggest a link between RT and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, but the pathogenesis of RT is not really known. Lyme disease is the most frequent tick-borne infection with variable manifestations in different organs caused by Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb).Case report: A 59-year-old woman presented in our outpatient clinic wit...

Usually, the first laboratory marker for thyroid disorders is TSH. FT4 and FT3 must not be measured unless TSH is out of the reference range. However, the reference range for TSH (and for free thyroid hormones) given by the manufacturers of immunoassays may be not completely valid for screening in iodine-deficient areas and among hospitalized patients either.Aim: Our aim was to constitute specific TSH, FT4, FT3...

In the clinical laboratory practice, endocrine biomolecules are mainly measured by immunoassay. Storage of the samples can not be avoided in many cases. Measurement in the low concentration ranges require exact knowledge on how storage would influence the functional sensitivity of the measurement.Aim: To evaluate the effect of storage of serum samples on their stability and the functional sensitivity of the applied method.Methods: ...