The Diagnostic Utility of Third Generation TSH Electro-Chemilumenescence Immunoassay in Detecting the Incidence of Thyroid Dysfunctions in Saudi Arabia
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- Category: Vol. 79, September 2011
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The Diagnostic Utility of Third Generation TSH Electro-Chemilumenescence Immunoassay in Detecting the Incidence of Thyroid Dysfunctions in Saudi Arabia,ABDULAZIZ A.A. ALGHAITHY and ASMAA A. EL-REWENY
Abstract
Objective: To demonstrate how to get use of the highly sensitive third generation electrochemiluminescence immu-noassay (ECLIA) in determining the incidence of various thyroid dysfunctions and making proper differentiation for these different thyroid disorders in KSA.
Setting: The Department of Medical Laboratory Technol-ogy, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Taibah University, Outpatient Clinics and the Laboratory Section in Ohud Hospital at Almadinah Almunawarah, KSA.
Subjects: Two groups were involved: Group I included 117 subjects of young volunteers (20-30 years) from Taibah University (TUV) as an apparently healthy group with no specific thyroid symptoms and group II represented by all attendants to outpatient clinics in Ohud Hospital at the same collection period (569 Subjects).
Methods: All subjects were subjected to measurement of serum TSH and free thyroid hormones by ECLIA. The main 2 groups were subdivided on biochemical basis according to their TSH and Thyroid Hormones (TH) levels.
Results: By the use of this immunoassay a percentage of 5.1% for subclinical hypothyroidism among TUV (group I) was reported. A higher percentage of 21.1% for subclinical hypothyroidism in group II was reported (group IIc). The difference between these two percentages was highly signif-icant (p<0.0001). Percentages of 4% for overt hypothyroidism (group IId) and 7.2% for those with high TSH and border line thyroid hormones (group IIb) were also recorded among group II. The sum of percentages of cases with high TSH in group II (32.3%) was highly significantly increased when compared with TUV group (p<0.0001). Percentages of 2% for subclinical hyperthyroidism and 0.7% for overt hyperthyroidism in group II were reported, but no cases of hyperthyroidism (subclinical-or overt) were recorded in TUV group. Also, hypothyroidism was found to be the main thyroid dysfunction when compared to hyperthyroidism in group II (32.3% versus 2.7%) and also in group I (5.1% versus 0%). The mean values for TSH in all subgroups included in group II showed highly significant differences when compared with the normal control group (group Ia). The mean values for thyroid hormones (FT4 & FT3) showed significant differences in some but not all subgroups in group II when compared with normal control.
Conclusion: The third generation TSH-ECLIA immunoas-say is the single sensitive first-line test for accurate screening and early diagnosis of thyroid dysfunctions in clinical labo-ratory. From the 2 studied Saudian population samples, the test proves that increasing the age increases the susceptibility of having a thyroid diseases especially hypothyroidism. The age period of 20 to 30 years could be the period that regular screening for subclinical hypothyroidism should be done in order to face a warning silent pandemic of hypothyroidism and prevent its major complications.