Gestational thyroid reference intervals in antibody-negative Chinese women

Area of Science:

• Endocrinology
• Clinical Chemistry
• Reproductive Medicine

Background:

• Thyroid function changes significantly during pregnancy.
• Accurate interpretation requires gestation-specific reference intervals (GRIs).
• Previous GRIs may not be suitable for all populations or assay platforms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish GRIs for thyroid function assays in pregnant Chinese women.
• To compare these GRIs with those from other studies.
• To validate the use of the Abbott ARCHITECT analyzer for these measurements.

Main Methods:

• Thyroid antibody-negative pregnant Chinese women (N=1409) were enrolled.
• Thyroid function was assessed using the Abbott ARCHITECT i2000SR analyzer.
• Data were compared with 360 non-pregnant controls.

Main Results:

• Gestation-specific reference intervals (GRIs) were determined for TSH, FT4, and FT3 across trimesters.
• First trimester GRIs: TSH 0.16-3.78mIU/L, FT4 10.9-17.7pmol/L, FT3 2.9-5.0pmol/L.
• Second and third trimester GRIs showed trimester-specific ranges.

Conclusions:

• Established GRIs differ from prior Chinese studies using different analyzers.
• The findings are consistent with a Swiss study employing the same ARCHITECT analyzer.
• These new GRIs are valuable for interpreting thyroid function tests in pregnant women using the Abbott analyzer.