EVALUATION OF IMMUNOLUMINOMETRIC THYROID PEROXIDASE DETERMINATION IN SERUM

With the identification of thyroid peroxidase (TPO) as the specific au toantigen in autoimmune diseases of the thyroid, the development of a commercial assay for detection of TPO in human serum became possible. The diagnostic value of this TPO assay was evaluated in 194 patients w ith various thyroidal diseases. The assay appeared to be easily affect ed by specific and/or unspecific interferences such as TPO-auto-antibo dies in the patient's blood samples. To analyze these effectors every sample was checked in a parallel recovery test. In most of the cases w ith elevated anti-TPO levels an exact determination of TPO could not b e estimated correctly. Whenever a correct measurement of TPO was possi ble. to none of the different examined groups of thyroid diseases a co rrelation of TPO-levels could be demonstrated. Moreover, the value of TPO determination as a tool in the follow-up of differentiated thyroid carcinoma was not provable. For the time being our studies do not sug gest TPO measurements being helpful in thyroidal diagnosis.