THE VALUE OF THE EFFECTIVE THYROXINE RATIO COMPARED WITH OTHER COMMON THYROID TESTS

. The purpose of the present work was to compare the reliability of the new in vitro thyroid test, ETR, with that of the other commonly used thyroid tests in three different ways. 1. Comparison of the test results with the clinical picture obtained by a doctor on the basis of anamnesis and status. 2. Investigation of the correlation of ETR with the other thyroid tests. 3. Investigation of the ability of the tests to discriminate between states of hypo-, hyper- and euthyroidism. The material examined consisted of 62 patients. The results showed ETR to be the best of the laboratory tests according to all three criteria. ETR correlated with the clinical picture obtained on the basis of anamnesis and status in 95% of the cases. ETR correlated highly significantly with the other thyroid tests used (T4 T3 (= T3 uptake), FT4 index, PBI, cholesterol and radioiodine test). The discriminative capacity of ETR was highly significant in all the states, while the ability of the T3 test to distinguish hypothyroidism was not statistically significant.