It has been established that autoantibodies to several different thyroid constituents are associated with destructive inflammatory lesions of the thyroid gland. Thyroglobulin and microsomal haemagglutination tests give useful predictive evidence of possible thyroid dysfunction in patients with other autoimmune endocrine disorders such as Addison’s disease, insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus or polyendocrine autoimmunopathies, and in members of families prone to organ-specific autoimmunity. The antibodies detected by the microsomal haemagglutination test are the principal circulating marker of human autoimmune thyroid disease, which include the clinical disorders of goitrous thyroiditis (Hashimoto’s disease), atrophic thyroiditis (myxoedema) and thyrotoxicosis (Graves’/Basedow’s disease)³.

• A simple and reproducible test
• Easy to read: Cells coated with thyroglobulin are agglutinated by specific autoantibodies, yielding an even carpet of cells at the bottom of a microtitre well and indicating a positive reaction; lack of agglutination is indicated by the cells settling into a tight ring or button, indicating a negative reaction.
• The combination of thyroglobulin and microsomal haemagglutination tests will detect practically all Hashimoto goitres and about 90% of primary myxoedema cases.
• Differential Diagnosis of primary thyrotoxicosis and various tachycardias, anxiety states, unexplained weight loss or diarrhoea.

Proteins such as thyroglobulin are readily bound to the surface of red blood cells which have been treated with tannic acid. Thyroglobulin extracted from human thyroid glands by classical salt precipitation techniques coupled to tanned turkey red cells provides a haemagglutination test system for the detection of low levels of auto-antibody to thyroglobulin. A small proportion of human sera are reactive against turkey cells, giving rise to non-specific agglutination of sensitised cells. These non-specific reactions may be detected by means of unsensitised control cells. Both test and control cells are treated with formalin and freeze dried to give long term stability on storage.

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