Iodine, Serum Blood test

Iodine is an essential element that is required for thyroid hormone production. The measurement of iodine serves as an index of adequate dietary iodine intake and iodine overload, particularly from iodine-containing drugs such as amiodarone.

Reference Interval: 40 - 92 mcg/L

Iodine deficiency is when your body does not get enough iodine for the thyroid gland to work normally. Thyroid cells need iodine to make thyroid hormone. If you do not have enough iodine in your body, you cannot make enough thyroid hormone.

Iodine is hard to measure in the body because it is mostly inside of your thyroid gland. Since iodine leaves the body in the urine, it can be measured the amount of iodine in a urine sample. Another method of assessing iodine status of a group of people is the measurement of thyroglobulin, a protein made by the thyroid gland, from blood testing. Higher thyroglobulin levels suggest that the thyroid is working harder to compensate for low iodine levels and may be an indication of iodine deficiency.