Increased Serum Concentration of Free L-Triiodothyronine in Patients Treated with L-Thyroxine

Abstract

This study demonstrates that in spite of measured normal concentrations of carrier proteins one cannot deduce in all cases a normal fT3 from a normal level of TT3 when 1-thyroxine given for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes is present in excess. The displacement of 1-triiodothyronine from its binding sites is shown in 35 patients with non-toxic goitre who received an oral dose of 200 μg 1-thyroxine/die for two weeks. Apart from a significant increase of TT4 (from 7.85 to 14.21 μg/dl ≙ + 81 %) and of fT4 (from 1.58 to 3.7 ng/dl ≙ + 134%) there is only a slight increase in TT3 from 148 to 158 ng/dl (≙ + 10%) after 14 days of treatment. By contrast fT3 rises clearly from 4.97 to 8.07 pg/ml ≙ + 63% (normal range: 2.8-5.6 pg/ml). Compared with the increase of TT3 (+ 10%) the free T3 rises by a factor of 6.3 (63 %/10%). On account of higher affinity of 1-thyroxine to binding proteins the free T4 is influenced to a lesser degree. Compared with the increase of TT4 (+ 81 %) free T4 rises by a factor of 1.6 (134%/81 %). It is supposed that the serum concentration of free T3 can be increased despite a normal concentration of TT3 when 1-thyroxine is present in excess. Therefore, for laboratory work fT3 should be assigned a higher validity than TT3 when patients are treated with comparatively high doses of 1-thyroxine.