antibody readings

[ShannieK]

Hi, I'm getting ready to go to the specialist tomorrow, today I went to my dr. here in town, had to pick up a copy of all my labs and such, now that I have all those numbers, I was looking for an opinion as to what they mean?  You all are putting your labs on here all the time, but I never had any to share with the class{ Ha Ha!!!!}  Some of you Hashi sufferers out there, these are my numbers.   Microsomal Antibodies, 650, Thryrogolbin  antibodies<20.0( What does that mean?)  My TSH was a 3.9, and I guess I lied and have had a free T4 it came back a .90.     Now at this time during all of this I was a mess, really bad, but all the labs came back within normal range, Isn't that weird?

[Jimlow]

ShannieK,
First, that TSH reading is actually high for a hypothyroid patient on thyroid replacement medication. Every reputable site I have ever looked at to see what recommendations were for TSH levels in patients on medication said it should be between 1.0 to 2.0 but they also say that some patients only have relief of symptoms when theirs is under 1.0. You can actually get down to 0.35 and not yet be in hyperthyroidism territory. I've had mine down to 0.45 and had no hyper symptoms at all in fact still had some hypo symptoms.
The "American Association Of Clinical Endocrinologists" came out with NEW GUIDELINES for TSH levels in 2002 and most labs have not re-adjusted thier ranges yet. This organization which is the most reliable source for endocrinology standards (thyroid is in this catagory), issued the new guidlines for TSH as being "0.3 to 3.0" and stated that anyone with a TSH of 3.0 is suspect for hypothyroidism. With yours being 3.9, you could easily still be hypothyroid! If you'll do a search and put in key words "New TSH standards" I'll guarantee you'll find these new guidelines.
Your Microsomal antibodies also sound very high but I'm not real familiar with that name. Usually the ones they check are called Anti-Thyrogloulin (which you list and was normal) and Anti-Thyroperoxidase however, this may be a different name for this same test. Did the microsomal one have a reference range? I can almost gurantee that microsomal is HIGH! But, I would like to see the range. Usually a range will look like this> "<70" or something to that effect, meaning your antibodies should be that number or less. If you have that range ShannieK I'd like to see it when you have time.

[ShannieK]

Did some looking myself, and found that the microsomal is the same as the perioxidase one, sorry, not sure of the spelling, without looking.  I found the reference range, it says that (0-35)  So yeah I guess my 650 is high, but my other antibody test the thyroglobin came back normal, does that make sense?  Also had a ANA test done to test for connective tissue disease, and came back with a high titre of 1:320 with a homogeneous pattern, whatever that means, after I started feeling better, he retested and it came back normal,  I often wondered if they would have retested my other antibodies, what they look like now.

[Jimlow]

That's the same range my lab had on the peroxidase one, so that is very definately high! Some people with Hashi's have only one or the other that's high and some have both of them high but it's my understanding that the peroxidase one is even more important than the thyroglobulin one. I don't know much about the ANA except that mine was negative when I had it tested. Antibodies are suppose to go down over time with thyroid med. but some sites I read, said it can take years.
I feel high antibodies can cause symptoms as much as low hormone levels will.
Good Luck On Your Other Dr. Visit!

[ShannieK]

Thanks for getting back. So many tests they do and still little understanding about it all.   I will keep you posted on my dr. visit tomorrow.  Thanks everyone for all your help.  Shannon