A-338 TSH Reference Range in the First Trimester in a Iodine Sufficient Population of Pregnant Women Attended by the Public Health System in Curitiba South of Brazil

Abstract

Abstract Background Thyroid diseases are common among women of reproductive age, and the serum concentration of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) is the most used index to assess thyroid function during pregnancy. Changes in thyroid function during pregnancy can have a clinical impact on a woman's health and pregnancy outcome, as well as interfere with fetal health and child development. An adequate thyroid function is essential for normal intrauterine development. When comparing the levels of TSH between pregnant and non-pregnant women, TSH levels are lower in pregnancy, mainly in the first trimester, with gradual increase during pregnancy. Although some guidelines propose fixed TSH reference values in pregnancy according to the gestational trimester, the main recommendation is to carry out a study of their local population due to the significant variation in TSH reference range levels in different populations and different assays. Therefore, it is necessary to determine values of a reference interval for TSH for the local population of pregnant women. This study aims to determine the normal reference range of TSH in the first trimester of gestation in the public health system pregnant women from Curitiba. Methods This is an ongoing prospective cohort study, with the population sample from the pregnant women using the public health system, with age >18 years old in Curitiba, South of Brazil. 383 pregnant women were invited to participate. After evaluate the exclusion criteria (gestational age more than 13 weeks, twin pregnancy, thyroid disease, iodine ingestion, identification of the samples in the laboratory), 225 pregnant women had the TSH measured by chemiluminescent immunoassay on Atellica IM Analyzer (Siemens Healthineers), as well as the TPO-ab presence, FreeT4 and Total T4. The 2.5, 50 end 97,5 TSH percentiles were estimated for the normal pregnant population. Results The mean gestational age was 8,6 weeks (standard deviation 2.33). From 225 pregnant women, 22 (9.8%) had TPO-ab positive. The 2.5 and 97.5 percentiles of TSH were 0.12 and 5.28 μIU/mL after using de exclusion criteria. The populational iodine status was sufficient. In the TPO-ab positive population was found a higher level of TSH. The proportion of TPO-ab positive was significantly higher in the population with TSH >2.5 μIU/mL. Conclusions This preliminary data shows the TSH reference range with levels higher than other regions, reinforcing to do not use fixed values of TSH from other populations to evaluate the thyroid function in pregnancy. Comparing to the laboratory reference for non-pregnant adult (0.48 to 5.60 μIU/mL), the recommended reduction of 0.5 μIU/mL on upper limit and 0.4 μIU/mL on the lower limit found similar values to our findings.