DrBaboon
10-23-05, 23:07
OK - it's probably a given that it's not reasonable to maintain the ability to do this in an austere lab - at least not as a service available to a patient population.
OTOH - I recently noticed this Wampole product:
http://www.wampolelabs.com/poc/gh_thyro_features.asp
It operates similarly to some of the serological tests in a medical office, and for the purposes of US regulation is considered to be CLIA waived.
I have no experience with the product.
It also gives different information than most of us are used to receiving from the lab - it does *not* give a numeric result for TSH. It's more of a HIGH vs. LOW result.
I noticed there was some discussion of animal thryoid in the book. That's comparable to the old Armor Thyroid USP idea. OTOH - that old product was standardized by iodine content - not thyroxine content.
I guess the thing that made me decide to mention this TSH product is for possible consideration if you know you have a relative with hypothyroidism. Dosing is otherwise going to be made on completely clinical grounds. I don't know about the rest of you, but I usually see changes in thyroid status by lab long before I see changes clinically.
At least this product can be stored at room temperature.
Unfortunately, it's not cheap. It'd be reasonable to adjust dosing with testing perhaps 2-4 times per year. I don't know how much degradation of test performance would be expected after the expiration date. I could also see splitting a 20 test pack with another family if it helped both families -- that would be a couple years worth of testing.
OTOH - I recently noticed this Wampole product:
http://www.wampolelabs.com/poc/gh_thyro_features.asp
It operates similarly to some of the serological tests in a medical office, and for the purposes of US regulation is considered to be CLIA waived.
I have no experience with the product.
It also gives different information than most of us are used to receiving from the lab - it does *not* give a numeric result for TSH. It's more of a HIGH vs. LOW result.
I noticed there was some discussion of animal thryoid in the book. That's comparable to the old Armor Thyroid USP idea. OTOH - that old product was standardized by iodine content - not thyroxine content.
I guess the thing that made me decide to mention this TSH product is for possible consideration if you know you have a relative with hypothyroidism. Dosing is otherwise going to be made on completely clinical grounds. I don't know about the rest of you, but I usually see changes in thyroid status by lab long before I see changes clinically.
At least this product can be stored at room temperature.
Unfortunately, it's not cheap. It'd be reasonable to adjust dosing with testing perhaps 2-4 times per year. I don't know how much degradation of test performance would be expected after the expiration date. I could also see splitting a 20 test pack with another family if it helped both families -- that would be a couple years worth of testing.