Thyrotoxicosis factitia masquerading as recurrent Graves' disease: endogenous antibody immunoassay interference, a pitfall for the unwary.
Antibody interference in immunoassays is an underestimated problem, which has the potential to cause patient harm and waste health-care resources. We report a case where thyroglobulin antibodies generated a false-positive thyroglobulin result delaying the diagnosis of thyrotoxicosis factitia masquerading as recurrent Graves' disease. A high index of clinical suspicion and good laboratory-clinician communication underpins effective clinical and laboratory strategies to detect potentially erroneous laboratory results due to endogenous antibody interference in immunoassays.
Jahagirdar
V R
VR
Department of Diabetes and Endocrinology, New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton, UK.
Strouhal
P
P
Holder
G
G
Gama
R
R
Singh
B M
BM
D000328:Adult; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005260:Female; D006111:Graves Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007118:Immunoassay; D013954:Thyroglobulin / Q000276:immunology; D013971:Thyrotoxicosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology
D001323:Autoantibodies; D013954:Thyroglobulin