critical values

[alysmom23]

What is a considered to be a critical lab value for thyroid in an adult?

[des900]

Free T4 and TSH able to give an idea regarding thyroid gland and how much thyroid hormones its producing. While Free T3 is the actual hormones which is used by various cells and organs and it depend on both thyroid glands and also dependent of organs like liver, intestine etc and also need proper level of essential nutrients like zinc, selenium, and others. Also things like high stress, diseases, vitamin D, B12  deficiency etc also can affect Free T3 values.

[goolarra]

That's not an easy question to answer since reference ranges for thyroid lab tests are very flawed.  TSH is a pituitary hormone, and as such is a screening test at best for asymptomatic individuals.  Typically, individuals who are hyper have TSH less-than 0.3, and hypos have TSH greater-than 3.0.  However there are esoteric thyroid problems that don't conform to that rule and can actually reverse it.

FT3 and FT4 are the actual thyroid hormones and a much more direct measure of thyroid status.  FT4 should be in the middle of its range, and FT3 in the upper half.

If you have actual results you'd like to discuss, please post them with reference ranges, which vary lab to lab and have to come from your own lab report.  If you'd like to list symptoms, that would help us as well.

[Barb135]

There are a lot of things to be taken into consideration with thyroid levels, so please explain your question... When you say "critical", are talking about dangerous levels?  Are you referring to TSH levels or something else?