Reliability of thyroglobulin in serum compared with urinary iodine when assessing individual and population iodine nutrition status

• Published in: British Journal of Nutrition
• Main Authors: Andersen, Stig, Noahsen, Paneeraq, Westergaard, Louise, Laurberg, Peter
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Journal Article; Greenland; inuit
• Online Access: https://vbn.aau.dk/da/publications/24e614ca-e8c5-4d7f-baa3-4efadb8aaf38; https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007114517000162

The occurrence of thyroid disorders relies on I nutrition and monitoring of all populations is recommended. Measuring I in urine is standard but thyroglobulin in serum is an alternative. This led us to assess the reliability of studies using serum thyroglobulin compared with urinary I to assess the I nutrition level and calculate the number of participants needed in a study with repeated data sampling in the same individuals for 1 year. Diet, supplement use and life style factors were assessed by questionnaires. We measured thyroglobulin and thyroglobulin antibodies in serum and I in urine. Participants were thirty-three Caucasians and sixty-four Inuit living in Greenland aged 30-49 years. Serum thyroglobulin decreased with rising I excretion (Kendall's τ -0·29, P=0·005) and did not differ with ethnicity. Variation in individuals was lower for serum-thyroglobulin than for urinary I (mean individual CV: 15·1 v. 46·1 %; P<0·01). It required 245 urine samples to be 95 % certain of having a urinary I excretion within 10 % of the true mean of the population. For serum-thyroglobulin the same precision required 206 samples. In an individual ten times more samples were needed to depict I deficiency when using urinary I excretion compared with serum-thyroglobulin. In conclusion, more participants are need to portray I deficiency in a population when using urinary I compared with serum-thyroglobulin, and about ten times more samples are needed in an individual. Adding serum-thyroglobulin to urinary I may inform surveys of I nutrition by allowing subgroup analysis with similar reliability.