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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Horm Metab Res 2020; 52(02): 126-127
DOI: 10.1055/a-1089-8026
Letter to the Editor

Reply to Drs. Kiaei and Molinaro Regarding the Publication “Comparison of a Bridge Immunoassay with Two Bioassays for Thyrotropin Receptor Antibody Detection and Differentiation”

Stephanie Allelein
1   Medical Faculty, Division for Specific Endocrinology, University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf , Germany
,
Tanja Diana
2   Department of Medicine I, Molecular Thyroid Research Laboratory, Johannes Gutenberg University (JGU) Medical Center, Mainz , Germany
,
Matthias Schott
1   Medical Faculty, Division for Specific Endocrinology, University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf , Germany
,
George J. Kahaly
2   Department of Medicine I, Molecular Thyroid Research Laboratory, Johannes Gutenberg University (JGU) Medical Center, Mainz , Germany
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Letter to:

Comparison of a Bridge Immunoassay with Two Bioassays for Thyrotropin Receptor Antibody Detection and DifferentiationHorm Metab Res 2019; 51(06): 341-346
DOI: 10.1055/a-0914-0535

Dear Editor,

Drs. Kiaei and Molinaro [1] put forth two criticisms of the manuscript published by us [2]. They state that the experimental design of this study is flawed and that the authors falsely claim that negative Thyretain™ TSI Reporter BioAssay results for two Graves’ diseases patients undergoing drug treatments means the absence of stimulating antibodies. To substantiate this claim Drs. Kiaei and Molinaro point out that the manufacturer of the Thyretain TSI Reporter BioAssay clearly states in the package insert that “[t]he effects of various drug therapies on the performance of this Kit have not been established” [1]. Second, the package insert explicitly states that “[a] negative result does not exclude the possibility of the presence of TSI” and results of the test should be interpreted in conjunction with information available from other clinical information, such as physical symptoms and thyroid hormone testing, as recommended by the American Thyroid Association (ATA)”. Furthermore they state that the “authors of the manuscript did not consider the manufacturer’s warning regarding the intended patient population and the ATA guidelines regarding the interpretation of the test results in conjunction with other clinical information. Instead, the authors based their conclusions on the negative Thyretain TSI Reporter BioAssay results and ignored the patients’ clinical history of Graves’ disease.”



Publication History

Article published online:
13 February 2020

© 2020. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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