Abstract:

Introduction: Determination of thyroid function tests among health people in our setting is of clinical significance because thyroid hormones vary by ethnicity and environmental factors. However there is a scarcity of data concerning normal thyroid function tests that can be used as a baseline among people living in Mwanza and Tanzania in general. Use of reference values from unrelated populations may lead to false diagnosis and unnecessary investigations and treatment costs to patients. Therefore, the study is designed thyroid function tests among volunteer blood at Bugando Medical Centre.

Methods: The study will be a cross sectional descriptive study involving all adult healthy blood donors at the blood donation department, which will be conducted from May to June 2018. Blood specimen will be collected and analyzed. ELISA kit test for thyroid hormone will be used to estimate levels of thyroid hormones in blood specimens. Data will be recorded into long book then transferred into Excel for cleaning and coding. STATA version 13 will be used for data analysis.

Results: Out of 178 healthy blood donors the mean TSH concentration was 2.16±0.13, Free T3 concentration was 13.38±1.14. The mean total T3 concentration was 2.30±0.21. The free T4 concentration was 2.47±0.07 the mean total T4 concentration was 4.45±0.15

Conclusion: The mean concentration obtained from the study correlates with the reference level concentration used at BMC. In order to have more significant results further studies involving participants from different areas should be conducted. And the large number of participants should be enrolled in the study including children. Also free T3 and free T4 should be measured among patients so as to more quality and reliable results.