Evaluation of a radioreceptor assay for TSH receptor autoantibodies

A commercial radioreceptor assay for TSH receptor autoantibodies (TRAb), based on solubilized porcine receptor and purified radio-iodinated bovine TSH, was tested in 264 subjects with a variety of thyroid disorders. The sensitivity of the assay for the detection of hyperthyroid Graves' disease was 91%. The assay specificity for Graves' disease was 95%. With the exception of one patient with Hashimoto's disease and one patient with de Quervain's subacute thyroiditis no subjects other than Graves' patients had detectable TRAb. Thus purely blocking TSH receptor autoantibodies were not detected with the assay. One female with thyroxine-treated idiopathic primary hypothyroidism who had given birth to two children with transiently elevated TSH, was found to have a circulating TSH-binding substance that resulted in an abnormally negative TRAb value, and highly discrepant results when TSH was measured with a double antibody TSH radioimmunoassay and an immunoradiometric assay. The TSH-binding substance was precipitated like a protein, but was not IgG. Similar findings have not previously been reported.