Propositions of interpretative comments for thyroid function tests

Abstract

In the field of thyroid disease, a number of governmental organisms or professional associations have published practice guidelines containing laboratory-related recommendations, eg the Haute autorité de la santé (HAS), or the American Thyroid Association (ATA). Among the physicians who prescribe thyroid function tests, all have not read and memorized all these recommendations. In order to help them to better integrate these recommendations in their practice, we have composed a thesaurus of ready-made interpretative comments, trying to adapt our proposed comments to each possible combination of results of TSH and/or free T4 and/or free T3. The laboratorians who would prefer to use only the comments based strictly on the recommendations of HAS and/or ATA, will be able to select among our comments what is really validated by these two organizations. In addition, our work aims at enabling the patients who want it, to benefit from written information, which may be complementary to the more often spoken information provided by the clinicians.