ZRT Laboratory

Iodine plays many different roles in optimizing health and preventing disease. As a result, it is essential that proper iodine intake is maintained and problems associated with either inadequate or excessive iodine levels are identified. Deficiency in particular has become a global health problem. Accurate diagnosis may often be overlooked because the symptoms overlap with those of other illnesses, perhaps masking the problem.

Testing Iodine levels and treatment for both excessive or deficiency is emerging area of science that holds potential for improving your patient’s health and longevity.

ZRT’s Iodine Test in Dried Urine
ZRT Laboratory has developed a simple and convenient iodine test using urine dried on a filter strip. Validation studies in our laboratory have shown average iodine levels in the dried spot urine, collected from first morning and last night void and dried on a filter strip, are equivalent to iodine levels in a 24 hr urine collection. This makes the dried urine collection method far more convenient and simple – but the scientific equivalent – of the cumbersome 24 hr collection of urine in a jug. There is no more ‘pouring’ of a 24 hr collection into a smaller vial for shipment to the laboratory, nor are special precautions or preservation of the sample required, as iodine and creatinine in the dried sample are exceptionally stable for months at room temperature. The iodine content of the dried filter strips is determined following extraction and measurement. Iodine is expressed as the average of morning and night levels per liter urine and mg creatinine.

ZRT’s Comprehensive Iodine Thyroid Test in Dried Urine and Blood Spot
While measurement of urinary iodine levels may provide useful information on one’s iodine nutritional status, sufficient levels does not always guarantee that adequate amounts of thyroid hormones will be synthesized by the thyroid gland. ZRT has combined the advanced technology of measuring iodine in dried urine (DU), with that of thyroid hormone measurements in finger prick dried blood spots (DBS) to create what we call the Comprehensive Iodine Thyroid Test. The Iodine-Thyroid Profile is designed to evaluate not only the availability of iodine, but also its capacity to be utilized for thyroid hormone synthesis. The thyroid glands capacity to utilize iodine for thyroid hormone synthesis is determined by measuring thyroglobulin, TSH, total T4, free T4, free T3, and TPO antibodies in finger-prick whole blood dried on filter paper.