Contradicting Thyroid Results

[ricecakes8259]

I have had three blood draws for my thyroid, and all of them show the same thing... extreme hyper thyroidism.  However, I had a thyroid uptake and scan and my level was less than 1%, meaning I am very hypo thyroidism.  My doctor has no clue as to what is happening and I have to see a specialist, but I am not able to see him for about 6 more weeks.  I am concerned and would like to know a little something about what this could possibly be before I walk into his office.  Please help!

[Mark Lupo, M.D.]

This is a common misinterpretation -- a low uptake does NOT mean hypothyroidism, it only means the thyroid is not interested in taking up iodine -- in hyper patients, this is usually due to a transient thyroiditis, less likely it would be due to iodine contamination (diet, supplements, other recent x-rays w/ iodine) causing falsely low uptakes. So you likely have thyroiditis that should improve on its own w/i 6-12 weeks.  However, careful monitoring of thyroid function is important during this time.

[mtkst13]

hi.  
i had the same thing.  tsh was .004, ft3 was high, thyroid uptake scan low low low.  

diagnosis:  silent thyroiditis.  

destruction causes transient hyperthyroidism, then suddenly you'll become hypothyroid and may need synthroid.  my tsh went from .004 when hyper, to 54 when hypo.  i took synthroid for a little while.  now i have normal thyroid function with no meds.  i just follow up every so often to make sure thyroid still working.

you'll need to get thyroid antibodies tested to see if you have hashimotos thyroiditis.  i had elevated antithyroglobulin, which i guess means there's likely autoimmune thyroid disease process going on that may eventually cause hypothyroidism in the future.

google silent thyroiditis and hashimotos thyroiditis.  you'll find lots of info.

good luck...