Quick Hits in Laboratory Medicine: Thyroid Disease

After viewing this video the audience should be able to describe hypothalamic/pituitary/thyroid axis. Attendees will be able to discuss the metabolism of thyroxin (T4) and it's metabolic conversion to the active triiodothyronine (T3). Viewers will be able to explain why the most important thyroid screening test is thyroid-stimulating hormone and how free T4 is used as a reflex test to follow-up abnormal TSH results. Attendees will interpret elevations of thyroglobulin and thyroid receptor antibodies (TRAB).

Key words: clinical chemistry, laboratory medicine, clinical pathology, thyroxine, thyroid, thyroid stimulating immunoglobulins, T4, free T4, T3, reverse T3, Graves' disease, Robert, Fitzgerald