Abandon the Thymol Turbidity Test

It is often more difficult to abandon an accepted laboratory test than to introduce a new one. In an attempt to convince our clinical staff that the thymol turbidity test had outlived its usefulness, we reviewed 2,557 “liver series” which included the TT. In 2,137 instances the TT agreed with the other tests and provided no different information. In 420 the TT disagreed with the other tests, but we could find no instance in which the diagnosis of hepatic disease was made on the basis of a positive TT alone, or in which hepatic disease was excluded because the TT was negative. We concluded therefore that the test has no value as part of a routine “liver series.”