Synonyms

TBG

Clinical Indications

Thyroglobulin is a sensitive marker of recurrent thyroid cancer following total thyroidectomy. It is normally present in low concentrations in serum and increases in a range of thyroid diseases, including thyroid cancer, and is too non-specific to be of value in diagnosis.
Endogenous antibodies to thyroglobulin may invalidate the assay for serum thyroglobulin. Please contact the laboratory if thyroglobulin results do not correlate with clinical suspicion of recurrence, so that the sample can be checked for interfering antibodies.

Request Form 

Combined Pathology Blood form (Yellow/Black or Blue for GP's)

Availability

Analysed by referral laboratory if specific criteria met.

Specific Criteria

Monitoring for recurrent thyroid cancer following total thyroidectomy.

Turnaround Time

3 weeks

Specimen

Serum

Volume

0.5 ml

Container

Red or pink top (plain) tube. Yellow top (SST) tubes should not be used.

Collection

No specific collection conditions

Causes for Rejection

Unlabelled sample

Reference Range

Less than 60 ug/L. After total thyroidectomy, thyroglobulin should no longer be detectable and measurable or rising concentrations imply the presence of thyroid tissue, presumably a recurrence of the cancer. Detection of recurrence may be made more sensitive by withdrawing replacement thyroxine therapy which causes TSH to rise.

Interpretation