SynthesisClinical endocrinology2021
Factors influencing the reference interval of thyroid-stimulating hormone in healthy adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Clinical endocrinology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- Regional oxygen saturation as a non-invasive indicator for neonatal PDA: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC pediatrics · 2026Pooled it
- Factors influencing the reference interval of thyroid-stimulating hormone in healthy adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Clinical endocrinology · 2021Pooled it
- A Robust Control Group Identification Approach for Reference Intervals of Thyroid Biomarkers: The Case of Jordan.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Review
- Age- and Sex-Specific Reference Intervals for TSH, FT4, and FT3 Derived from the Turkish Multi-Center Cohort.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Global and Indian perspectives on trimester-specific reference intervals for thyroid hormones in pregnant women: a systematic review.Thyroid research · 2026Review
- TSH reference intervals among Sub-Saharan African adults: a pilot study in Cameroon.BMC endocrine disorders · 2026Article
- Establishment of Reference Intervals for Plasma TSH Across the Lifespan in an Algerian Mediterranean Population.Journal of clinical laboratory analysis · 2026Article
- Establishing Age- and Sex-Specific Reference Intervals for Thyroid Function Tests in the Older People of Eastern Anatolia: A Population-Based Indirect Approach.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2026Article
- Comparison of thyroid hormones reference intervals based on thyroid antibody levels: A multicenter study.PloS one · 2026Article
- Performance validation of Abbott Alinity i chemiluminescence analyzer for five thyroid function tests.Practical laboratory medicine · 2025Article
- Thyroid-stimulating hormone and cognitive impairment in non-depressed non-demented multiethnic middle-aged and older US adults: Assessing sex-specific risk prediction.Archives of gerontology and geriatrics plus · 2025Article
- Assessing thyroid health: phenotypic age compared to chronological age.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Article
- Management of Subclinical Hypothyroidism: A Focus on Proven Health Effects in the 2023 Korean Thyroid Association Guidelines.Endocrinology and metabolism (Seoul, Korea) · 2023Article
- Thyroid Hormone Reference Intervals among Healthy Individuals In Lanzhou, China.Endocrinology and metabolism (Seoul, Korea) · 2023Article
- [A multi-center analysis of thyroid-stimulating hormone level in apparently healthy elderly population in China].Nan fang yi ke da xue xue bao = Journal of Southern Medical University · 2023Article
- An innovative approach based on real-world big data mining for calculating the sample size of the reference interval established using transformed parametric and non-parametric methods.BMC medical research methodology · 2022Article
- Thyroid Stimulating Hormone, T3 and T4 Population-based Reference Range and Children Prevalence of Thyroid Dysfunction: First Report from South of Iran.Iranian journal of pathology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMany studies have reported that the thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) reference interval is susceptible to external factors, such as age, sex, race, region and iodine intake. However, no meta-analysis has comprehensively explored the effect of these factors on the TSH reference interval.
methodsArticles published from January 1960 to January 2020 were searched in PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, Scopus, Medline English databases and CNKI, WanFang and CQVIP Chinese databases. In total, 19 studies were ultimately included. All data were analysed using Review Manager 5.3, STATA 16.0 software, GraphPad Prism 8.0 and Microsoft Excel 2010 to draw the TSH concentration curve.
resultsThe TSH reference interval was significantly influenced by sex and age. The mean of TSH concentration in females was 0.27 mIU/L higher than that in males. Reference interval of TSH is divided into 20-59 years old and >60 years old age groups in males, and 20-39 years old and >40 years old age groups in females. Regardless of sex, TSH concentrations all increase with age. In iodine-deficient areas, TSH reference intervals were generally lower than those in iodine-sufficient or iodine-excessive areas. The TSH reference interval in Asia and North American countries was generally higher than that in most European countries. In the subgroup analyses of sample size, region and assay methods and manufacturers, the between-group differences were significant.
conclusionThe TSH reference interval was significantly influenced by sex, age, iodine intake, sample size, region, and assay methods and manufacturers, but other factors should not be ignored. Therefore, it is necessary for each laboratory to validate an appropriate TSH reference interval based on local conditions.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.