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My m.d. just told me that my antithyroid anitbody level was 215 and normal ranged from 0-40. I can’t get into see an endo until October 29. My m.d. really couldn’t explain what this all meant. Just that 215 was very high. Can someone help me understand this?
Thanks
CharityI think what it means is that Graves’ Disease is very active in your body. What happened with me is that after a recurrance of Graves’ last year I had RAI in Oct. 2000. I thought this would be the end of my problems and that I would just eventually go hypo and everything would be “normal” again. Up until this time I had never had any eye problems I was aware of. In Jan. 2001 I first noticed swelling in my eyes. In April the opthamologist ordered the antithyroid test to confirm that it was Grave’s eye disease and my level came back at greater than 1000! (The lab said normal level is under 35.) People had been telling me I couldn’t have the eye disease once my thyroid was killed – boy were they wrong!
Take care,
PianogirlHi Charity,
The subject of the Graves antibodies came up for my 8 year old who has Graves. My understanding is this:
Graves Disease is an autoimmune disorder, in other words your immunobodies which are designed to help us fight off bad guys , i.e. infection and disease, instead fight us…in yours and my daughter’s case, they are attacking your thyroid gland. Graves can go into remission, which would be indicated by a reduced level of these immunobodies, but that remission is unrelated to T4 and T3 levels or to whether your thyroid gland is functioning at all. These immunobodies which attack the Thyroid in Graves Disease are the same ones which attack the muscles behind the eye (causing Graves or Thyroid Eye Disease). This explains why theoretically your homone levels could be stabilized in the normal range but the Eye disease can still occur…because the immunobodies are still present and on the attack. Anti thyroid medications only stop T4 and T3 from being synthesized and therefor distributed into the blood stream…they are not able to intercept the message the immunobodies are sending.
Many endos do not test your IGG levels (immunobodies) each time…it takes longer to get the results, is more costly, etc. but they do give you the update on whether remission is around the corner, etc.
Hope this helps.
DebbyMy daughters antibodies have never been tested. She is currently taking 600 mg of PTU and her T3 & T4 are slowly coming down. If I request that the antibodies be tested, will they be accurate now that her thyroid levels are coming down?
From what I understand, antibody levels can rise and fall with no particular logic, so it may not give you any really good information (in other words, it may not relate to how she feels). I have also heard that the test can be expensive, and in some cases (about 10%) can show a false negative result. The advice we got during the pediatric endocrinologist’s talk at our conference was to make sure the test is run at a *national* lab to be sure of the results.
The most important levels to have are the blood thyroid levels. That is what relates to how she’s feeling.
Go ahead and discuss this with her doctor — if you want the test run, you should find out what the doctor thinks about it. And if you disagree (you want the test but the doctor doesn’t), you always have the option to have the test run and pay for it yourself.
-Ski
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