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Research Article| Volume 13, ISSUE 3, P599-630, September 1993

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Analytic Measurements of Free Thyroxine

  • Roger Ekins
    Correspondence
    Address re-print requests to Roger Ekins, MA, PhD, DSc Department of Molecular Endocrinology University College London Medical School Mortimer Street London WIN 8AA England.
    Affiliations
    From the Department of Molecular Endocrinology, University College London Medical School, London, England
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      Controversy has centered both on the free hormone hypothesis and the mode of operation and clinical reliability of the newer immunologic methods of free hormone measurement for more than a decade. Consideration of hormone transport kinetics suggests that the free hormone concentration measured in vitro may not always constitute the key determinant of hormone transport. Free hormone assay methods are reviewed, with particular emphasis on methods based on labeled or solid-phase analogues. The reliability of most commercial kits is suspect, yielding what is better viewed as a diagnostic index than an analytically valid free hormone measurement.
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