Thyrotropin levels in a population with no clinical, autoantibody, or ultrasonographic evidence of thyroid disease: implications for the diagnosis of subclinical hypothyroidism.

ABSTRACT:

Context

The current debate regarding whether to decrease the upper limit for the TSH reference range to 2.5 microIU/ml has considerable potential impact on the diagnosis and treatment of subclinical hypothyroidism worldwide.

Objective

We report an analysis of TSH distribution in a population with no evidence of thyroid disease, including a normal thyroid ultrasound.

Design

A subset of the Hanford Thyroid Disease Study cohort was used to examine the TSH distribution in a population having no evidence of thyroid disease, seronegative thyroid autoantibodies, no history of thyroid medications, and a normal thyroid ultrasound. The shape of the TSH distribution was compared with the Gaussian and lognormal distributions.

Setting

This study was performed in the general

SUBMITTER: Hamilton TE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2729186 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature