# ?'s about son's lab results



## darlisar (Aug 1, 2010)

Hi, my son just had labs done Friday. My daughter was diagnosed with Hashimoto's 3 years ago and within the last month myself as well. To be on safe side I wanted to have my son tested as well. His TSh and Free T4 look normal and are in normal range, just dont know how to interperut the Antiobodies test. Just wondering if it shows positive or negatice. Here are his results. If anyone could help I'd appreciate it!

2/17/2012
TSH 2.79 norm range .4-4.0
Free T4 1.04 norm range .81-1.54
TPO AB <3.0 norm range <5.6

5/6/2009
TSH 1.51 norm range .4-4.00
Free T4 .90 norm range .81-1.54


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## Andros (Aug 26, 2009)

darlisar said:


> Hi, my son just had labs done Friday. My daughter was diagnosed with Hashimoto's 3 years ago and within the last month myself as well. To be on safe side I wanted to have my son tested as well. His TSh and Free T4 look normal and are in normal range, just dont know how to interperut the Antiobodies test. Just wondering if it shows positive or negatice. Here are his results. If anyone could help I'd appreciate it!
> 
> 2/17/2012
> TSH 2.79 norm range .4-4.0
> ...


Wow! Son appears to be headed for hypo if not already with increase in TSH and decrease in FT4 since 09. But......................that's a lot of years in between.

How old is your son?

TPO Ab is positive but below range. The patient should not have any.

Please read the link. Also, these AB wax and wane. Trick is to catch them at their worse.

Negative test is normal; you should not have any of these antibodies. And the healthy person does have a low titer of TPO.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003556.htm

Did doc do ferritin test as per our discussion?


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## darlisar (Aug 1, 2010)

The reason for the tests so far between was that that was shortly after my daughter was diagnosed and he was going in for a sports physical and I had asked for his TSH to be tested. As when my daughter had went in for a sports physical, dr doing thorough exam discovered she had a goiter and ordered labs. When her TSH came back the results were greater than 100(thats all was told, dont have exact #). Everything looked normal with his results. I went to dr and she wanted to run antibodies test on me because was told runs in family, and mine came back positive, but my TSH was 3.89 and dr didn't want to do anything because norm range was .4-4.0. My antibodies was 941.9 with norm range <5.6. So that's when I decided to take him and ask for same test to be done. I won't be able to ask dr if positive or negative til next week as its the weekend and holiday monday. But was trying to research on internet what his results meant and got some conflicting info. Different places said with his results it would mean negative. My son is very skinny I guess you would say, and always been in the low percentile for his weight. He is 11 1/2, and has weighed the same for the past year. So him being hypo really hadn't been a concern for me, and just asked for test as a precautionary. I will check this site out you posted though.


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## darlisar (Aug 1, 2010)

Just noticed in ur post you had said he had an increase in TSH and decrease in T4. But actually both had increased this time. Does that make any difference?


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## Andros (Aug 26, 2009)

darlisar said:


> The reason for the tests so far between was that that was shortly after my daughter was diagnosed and he was going in for a sports physical and I had asked for his TSH to be tested. As when my daughter had went in for a sports physical, dr doing thorough exam discovered she had a goiter and ordered labs. When her TSH came back the results were greater than 100(thats all was told, dont have exact #). Everything looked normal with his results. I went to dr and she wanted to run antibodies test on me because was told runs in family, and mine came back positive, but my TSH was 3.89 and dr didn't want to do anything because norm range was .4-4.0. My antibodies was 941.9 with norm range <5.6. So that's when I decided to take him and ask for same test to be done. I won't be able to ask dr if positive or negative til next week as its the weekend and holiday monday. But was trying to research on internet what his results meant and got some conflicting info. Different places said with his results it would mean negative. My son is very skinny I guess you would say, and always been in the low percentile for his weight. He is 11 1/2, and has weighed the same for the past year. So him being hypo really hadn't been a concern for me, and just asked for test as a precautionary. I will check this site out you posted though.


Many who are hypo do gain weight; conversely many lose. Same with hyper. I and many others on this board gained while hyper; while many lost weight.

And hyper should be ruled out for there are blocking, binding and stimuluating antibodies and immunoglobulins.

2 good things to read............

Substances not found in normal serum
Autoantibodies
http://www.thyroidmanager.org/chapt...d-specific-autoantibodies-tpoab-tgab-and-trab



> They did a total re-vamp of Thyroid Manager; sorry about the inconvenience.


TSI
Normally, there is no TSI in the blood. If TSI is found in the blood, this indicates that the thyroid stimulating immunoglobulin is the cause of the of a person's hyperthyroidism. 
http://www.medicineonline.com/topics/t/2/Thyroid-Stimulating-Immunoglobulin/TSI.html

It is possible that some antibodies are causing the numbers in the thyroid panel to be in normal range. They fight each other in an effort to stabilize what is going on.


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## darlisar (Aug 1, 2010)

Thank you for your reply! The first thread wouldn't pull up. But I just want to clarify I am understanding everything. So based on his antibodies test you would say it shows positive, not negative. And he could be hyper? Reguarding hyper, do you know if I symptom is sleeplessness? He's in 5th grade now but in 3rd grade had a long spout of just not being tired. Not being able to fall asleep til late and waking up bright and early(around 4am). But also being fine during the day. About the time I was gonna ask dr if this was normal was the time he started to pull out of it a bit. Maybe its just a normal growing thing, don't know.


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## Andros (Aug 26, 2009)

darlisar said:


> Thank you for your reply! The first thread wouldn't pull up. But I just want to clarify I am understanding everything. So based on his antibodies test you would say it shows positive, not negative. And he could be hyper? Reguarding hyper, do you know if I symptom is sleeplessness? He's in 5th grade now but in 3rd grade had a long spout of just not being tired. Not being able to fall asleep til late and waking up bright and early(around 4am). But also being fine during the day. About the time I was gonna ask dr if this was normal was the time he started to pull out of it a bit. Maybe its just a normal growing thing, don't know.


Oh, yeah. It's only a small amount but it "is" there and subject to increasing.

I corrected that link; it was outdated but you will find Thyroid Manager to be very credible and they do have a pediatrics chapter.

http://www.thyroidmanager.org/chapt...d-specific-autoantibodies-tpoab-tgab-and-trab


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## lainey (Aug 26, 2010)

> Thank you for your reply! The first thread wouldn't pull up. But I just want to clarify I am understanding everything. So based on his antibodies test you would say it shows positive, not negative. And he could be hyper? Reguarding hyper, do you know if I symptom is sleeplessness? He's in 5th grade now but in 3rd grade had a long spout of just not being tired. Not being able to fall asleep til late and waking up bright and early(around 4am). But also being fine during the day. About the time I was gonna ask dr if this was normal was the time he started to pull out of it a bit. Maybe its just a normal growing thing, don't know.


Yes. In a child the other things you would look for is sweaty, clammy skin, high heart rate, being hungry often, poor attention in school, poor impulse control, and basically busy, too (the kind of behavior that might cause a teacher to ask test a child for ADD). These don't have to be very pronounced, but tend to all occur together.

If you really want a good picture, as Andros says, you need to run the antibodies for hyper (TSI) and a free T3. He may not be clearly clinical yet, but with yours and his sisters' history, it is a very good reason to monitor it.


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## northernlite (Oct 28, 2010)

His TPO is technically negative. I would not call that a positive result. He measures less than 3.0 and less than 5.6 is considered negative. His TPO could have been zero, neglible or measured 2.9. You really don't know with that type of range given (which is not unusual for TPO and other antibody testing). There is always a margin of error in any test and I think that is while zero would be ideal, they give less than 5.6 as their normal range.

Unless you see symptoms that make you concerned, I would just monitor this with an annual TSH. His TSH is approaching the upper limit and would push to the hypo range at above 3.0 so just keep an eye on everything. You will be the reminding force to his doctors if something seems not right..."remember our family history of thyroid issues, could his thyroid be the cause of some of these symptoms....."


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