12 June 2010

Programme Speaker/Topic - Dr Mark S Cooper Consultant & Senior Lecturer Research Group Endocrinology at the University of Birmingham Medical Science Division - Dr Cooper talked about "The Links Between Blood Results and Symptoms

Around 45 people attended the meeting which started with registration and refreshments. Dr Cooper presented his talk with a power point presentation followed by a QA session. Dr Cooper’s explanations were based on his advice as a consultant which does not include Thyroid Cancer.

He opened by accepting the diversity of people and the implications when thinking about a population or an individual. He acknowledges that the acceptable ‘normal’ range is controversial and insists they should be considered as guidelines only.

Thyroid Tests:

What are they? What do they do?

The main blood tests are for Thyroid Stimulating Hormones (TSH), Functional Thyroid 4 (FT4) & Functional Thyroid 3 (FT3).

The tests tell what is going on in the body. The speed of change is different for the different tests. TSH takes longer to move around our bodies system and therefore to see any change from one test result to another would take a much longer period than the much quicker movement of FT4 & FT3. He suggested that blood test should be for both FT4 and TSH to have a more accurate idea of what is happening and we should be questioning if only one of them has been tested.

Symptoms:

Dr Cooper acknowledged the differences in symptoms which vary in individuals. Some have few others have lots. It is difficult to exclude symptoms until you have treatment and the blood tests show that you have normalised.

The normalising of symptoms has varying time-scales. For the medicine to have an effect, he gave the examples that; it takes two years for hair to get better, yet where heart rate is affected it takes up to 6 weeks after treatment is started to notice a change. So in summary the different symptoms change at different rates.

What happens when tests are linked with symptoms?

"A patient feels fine but tests are abnormal" – he would assess the risks and the various complications that may arise if he did nothing. As a consultant he has the responsibility to weigh up what is best for the patient in the long term.

"Their blood tests show they are ok when they are feeling very ill" – Patients shouldn’t be told they don’t feel ill. What he would do is make sure nothing else is going on. However sometimes we have to accept the technology/medical knowledge is not there yet to diagnose.

28 November 2009

Speakers: Carole Ingham (BTF Bolton Lc & Chair of BTF Thyroid Cancer Group) spoke about her own experience with follicular thyroid cancer and her role in BTF. Prof Jayne Franklyn, President of British Thyroid Association and ex-officio BTF Trustee, presented a powerpoint on thyroid disorders. Prof Franklyn stressed the importance of not taking supplements such as kelp if you have a thyroid disorder.

There were 59 people in attendance. The majority of those who completed the evaluation form said they found the meeting useful and that an enjoyable part of the event was meeting other people they could relate to.